ELECTORAL COMMISSION COMMITTEE

Police and Crime Commissioners

Robert Halfon: To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, what lessons the Electoral Commission has learned from the recent police and crime commissioner elections.

Gary Streeter: The Electoral Commission has a statutory duty to report on the administration of police and crime commissioner elections. It expects to publish its report on the recent elections by the end of February 2013.
	The Commission will use evidence about the experiences of voters, candidates and returning officers to identify whether improvements can be made for future elections. It will examine: the process of developing the legal framework for the elections; the rules for nominations and the disqualification of candidates; and the experience of voters, and whether they received the information they needed in order to participate in the elections.
	The Commission would welcome views from any hon. Members or their constituents to inform its review.
	The Commission will also publish information on candidate spending and donations at these elections after it has received this information from police area returning officers. This report will include any recommendations on the regulation of campaigning at future elections.

SCOTLAND

Employment Schemes

Ann McKechin: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland when the Scottish Employability Forum will next meet.

David Mundell: The Scottish Employability Forum is scheduled to meet on 31 January 2013.

Work Programme

Ann McKechin: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland pursuant to the answer of 28 November 2012, Official Report, column 356W, on the Work Programme, whether the Scottish Government has agreed to (a) meet any of the training costs of and (b) provide training opportunities to those claimants who are taking part in the Work Programme in Scotland.

David Mundell: The Scottish Government have not agreed to meet the training costs of or provide training opportunities to Work Programme participants in Scotland.

HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMISSION

Pate de Foie Gras

Mark Pritchard: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, representing the House of Commons Commission, if the Commission will phase out the sale of (a) foie gras and (b) foie gras derivatives in restaurants on the Commons Estate.

John Thurso: The House of Commons does not sell foie gras or foie gras derivatives in any of its restaurants and has no plans to do so.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL

CPS Direct

David Ruffley: To ask the Attorney-General what CPS Direct's target for answering telephone calls made to it is; what the average response time was for telephone calls made to CPS Direct in each of the last three years; and how many telephone calls CPS Direct received in each of those years.

Oliver Heald: CPS Direct's target to answer telephone calls from the police, as agreed with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), is to answer more than 75% of calls within three minutes.
	The numbers of calls received by CPS Direct and the response times for the last three years are shown in the following table:
	
		
			  Number of calls Percentage of calls answered within 3 minutes Average queuing time 
			 2009-2010 182,113 86.7 (1)00:50 
			 2010-2011 191,392 80.6 03:03 
			 2011-2012 159,242 84.6 01:53 
			 (1) Note: A different telephone call handling system was in operation in 2009-10 and this figure only represents the time it took for an operator to respond rather than for the police officer to be in contact with a Duty Prosecutor.

CPS Direct

David Ruffley: To ask the Attorney-General what the annual running costs of CPS Direct are; how many staff, including duty prosecutors, CPS Direct currently employs; and what the annual expenditure by CPS Direct on staff was in each of the last three years.

Oliver Heald: The following tables give the details of CPS Direct budget and staff position for the last three years.
	The total budget for each year, total spending in each year, and total staff salary costs are shown in Table A.
	
		
			 Table A 
			 £ 
			  Total budget Total spend Total salary costs 
			 2009-10 13,523,769 13,512,915 12,699,948 
			 2010-11 13,037,959 13,010,208 12,619,372 
			 2011-12 11,831,138 11,809,867 11,465,480 
			 Current budget 11,563,959 — — 
			 Note: Current budget is for ‘out of hours’ workload, although CPS Direct is assisting some CPS areas by dealing with a proportion of their daytime charging workload for which a transfer of funds to CPS Direct from the area will be made. 
		
	
	The number of duty prosecutors, legal managers and central support team staff is shown in Table B. The figures show staff numbers in terms of staff employed on a full-time equivalent basis.
	
		
			 Table B 
			  Duty prosecutors Legal managers Central support team 
			 2009-10 125.5 12 19 
			 2010-11 115.8 11 17 
			 2011-12 98.7 11 15 
			 Current staffing 143.5 10 18 
			 Note: Current staffing levels now include for the first time staff employed to provide charging advice to the police during the ordinary working week. This is the first year that CPS Direct has had staff employed from area offices to advise police during the daytime on weekdays.

Pay

Dominic Raab: To ask the Attorney-General how many employees in the Law Officers' Departments were paid (a) between £80,000 and £100,000 per year and (b) in excess of £100,000 per year in each of the last five years.

Oliver Heald: The following table shows the number of permanent employees in the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) who were paid £80,000 per annum or over as at 31 March in each of the last five years:
	
		
			 SFO 
			  Between £80,000 and £100,000 In excess of £100,000 
			 2007-08 4 2 
			 2008-09 6 2 
			 2009-10 5 4 
			 2010-11 5 4 
			 2011-12 5 3 
		
	
	The following table shows the number of permanent employees recorded by the Treasury Solicitors Department (TSol) office who were paid £80,000 per annum or over as at 31 March in each of the last five years. The TSol figures also cover staff in the Attorney-General's Office and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate.
	
		
			 TSol 
			  Between £80,000 and £100,000 In excess of £100,000 
			 2007-08 22 7 
			 2008-09 29 7 
			 2009-10 28 9 
			 2010-11 25 (1)7 
			 2011-12 25 (1)8 
			 (1 )One individual paid in excess of £100,000 is a public appointment and not a civil servant. 
		
	
	The following table shows the number of permanent employees in the Crown Prosecution Service office (CPS) who were paid £80,000 per annum or over as at 31 March in each of the last five years:
	
		
			 CPS 
			  Between £80,000 and £100,000 In excess of £100,000 
			 2007-08 39 32 
			 2008-09 45 35 
			 2009-10 46 38 
		
	
	
		
			 2010-11 36 33 
			 2011-12 41 28

WORK AND PENSIONS

Abu Qatada

George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost to the public purse has been of housing benefit claimed by Abu Qatada.

Steve Webb: All personal information held in social security records is treated as confidential. Personal information may be disclosed only where: the customer has provided consent; there is a statutory basis for disclosure; disclosure is required to comply with a court order; or where there is a compelling public interest in making the disclosure.

Abu Qatada

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total cost has been of the provision of housing benefit to Abu Qatada to date.

Steve Webb: This information cannot be released, as all personal information held in social security records is treated as confidential and may be disclosed only where: the customer has provided consent; there is a statutory basis for disclosure; disclosure is required to comply with a court order; or where there is a compelling public interest in making the disclosure.

Council Tax Benefits

Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 
	(1)  how many persons aged under 65 are in receipt of the second adult rebate in each local authority area;
	(2)  what the weekly second adult rebate payment to recipients aged under 65 is in each local authority area;
	(3)  how many people aged under 65 in each council tax band are in receipt of council tax benefit in each local authority area.

Steve Webb: The information requested is not readily available, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Grants

Margaret Curran: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 28 November 2012, Official Report, column 341W, on grants, how much was paid in (a) Scotland and (b) the UK through (i) work clubs, (ii) enterprise clubs, (iii) community care grants, (iv) sure start maternity grants, (v) funeral payments, (vi) cold weather payments, (vii) winter fuel payments, (viii) access to work grants, (ix) grants awarded under the Flexible Support Fund and (x) new enterprise allowance scheme in each of the last five years.

Mark Hoban: The information is as follows:
	
		
			 (i) Final annual expenditure on work clubs 
			 £ 
			  Scotland Great Britain 
			 2007-08 — — 
			 2008-09 — — 
			 2009-10 — — 
			 2010-11 22,361 189,735 
			 2011-12 57,480 603,045 
			 Notes: 1. Work clubs launched in October 2010 in target areas and UK wide from April 2011. 2. Northern Ireland data are not included. 
		
	
	
		
			 (ii) Final annual expenditure on enterprise clubs 
			 £ 
			  Scotland Great Britain 
			 2007-08 — — 
			 2008-09 — — 
			 2009-10 — — 
			 2010-11 — — 
			 2011-12 4,477 149,524 
			 Notes: 1. Enterprise clubs launched in April 2011. 2. Northern Ireland data are not included. 
		
	
	
		
			 (iii) Final annual expenditure on community care grants 
			 £ million 
			  Scotland Great Britain 
			 2007-08 19.5 138.9 
			 2008-09 20.9 139.2 
			 2009-10 20.8 138.8 
			 2010-11 20.8 138.9 
			 2011-12 20.4 139.2 
		
	
	
		
			 (iv) Final annual expenditure on Sure Start maternity grants 
			 £ million 
			  Scotland Great Britain 
			 2007-08 8.6 123.1 
			 2008-09 9.8 132.9 
			 2009-10 9.9 138.9 
			 2010-11 9.3 130.1 
			 2011-12 3.8 45.3 
		
	
	
		
			 (v) Final annual expenditure on funeral payments 
			 £ million 
			  Scotland Great Britain 
			 2007-08 6.5 46.0 
			 2008-09 6.7 48.4 
			 2009-10 6.5 47.1 
			 2010-11 6.2 46.5 
			 2011-12 6.2 46.7 
		
	
	
		
			 (vi) Final annual expenditure for cold weather payments (estimated) 
			 £ million 
			  Scotland Great Britain 
			 2007-08 3.2 4.1 
			 2008-09 14.8 210.4 
			 2009-10 51.1 297.6 
			 2010-11 93.9 430.8 
		
	
	
		
			 2011-12 1.8 129.2 
			 Notes for (iii), (iv), (v), (vi): 1. The information provided is Management Information. This information is not quality assured to the same extent as Official/National statistics and there are some issues with the data; for example, they do not include applications which were processed clerically and have not yet been entered on to the social fund computer system. 2. Information regarding annual expenditure for social fund schemes in Northern Ireland is a matter for the Northern Ireland office and is not included in the above figures. 3. These figures only include payments made in respect of weather stations whose coverage areas lie entirely within Scotland. There are some weather station areas that cross the border with England; as we do not know which country these recipients are in, they are excluded from the figures. 4. Cold weather payments are made to benefit units rather than to households or individuals. A benefit unit can be a single person or a couple and can include children. The annual expenditure for cold weather payments is based on the estimated number of eligible benefit units on the 31 October at the start of the relevant year. 5. Since 2008-09, each benefit unit is paid £25 for each seven day period of cold weather. In 2007-08, the rate was £8.50 for each seven day period. 6. Figure are rounded to the nearest £100,000. 
		
	
	(vii) Winter fuel payments
	Expenditure on winter fuel payments for Scotland and the UK (excluding Northern Ireland) can be found in the expenditure by local authority table published here:
	http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/la_expenditure.xls
	Source: DWP Statistical and Accounting Data.
	
		
			 (viii) Final annual expenditure on access to work grants 
			 £ 
			  Scotland Great Britain 
			 2007-08 — 75,841,236 
			 2008-09 — 81,223,332 
			 2009-10 4,480,492 97,979,187 
			 2010-11 6,303,050 107,049,733 
			 2011-12 5,710,396 92,960,281 
			 Notes: 1. No separate cost centre on access to work grants for Scotland prior to 2009-10; would require detailed transaction analysis which is disproportionate cost. 2. Northern Ireland data are not included. 
		
	
	
		
			 (ix) Final annual expenditure on flexible support fund partnership grants 
			 £ 
			  Scotland Great Britain 
			 2007-08 — — 
			 2008-09 — — 
			 2009-10 — — 
			 2010-11 — — 
			 2011-12 919,786 4,783,141 
			 Notes: 1. FSF launched in April 2011. 2. Northern Ireland data are not included. 
		
	
	
		
			 (x) Final annual expenditure on New Enterprise Allowance Scheme mentoring grants 
			 £ 
			  Scotland Great Britain 
			 2007-08 — — 
			 2008-09 — — 
			 2009-10 — — 
		
	
	
		
			 2010-11 — 45,600 
			 2011-12 — 11,178,133 
			 Notes: 1. NEA was launched in 2010-11 in a pilot area only. National launch date was April 2011. 2. Costs for Scotland are not separately held; would require detailed transaction analysis which is disproportionate cost. 3. Northern Ireland data are not included.

Housing Benefit

Chris Skidmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many recipients of housing benefit live in accommodation with (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four, (e) five, (f) six, (g) seven, (h) eight, (i) nine and (j) 10 or more bedrooms in each local authority area.

Steve Webb: The information requested is not available.

Housing Benefit

Chris Skidmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (a) how many people claiming housing benefit live in and (b) what the total cost to the public purse is of housing benefit paid to households with (i) one, (ii) two, (iii) three, (iv) four, (v) five, (vi) six, (vii) seven, (viii) eight, (ix) nine and (x) 10 or more children.

Steve Webb: The requested information is in the following table.
	
		
			 Housing benefit recipients in 2012 and expenditure for 2011-12 by number of child dependants 
			 Number of child dependants Caseload August 2012 Expenditure 2011-12 (£ million) 
			 1 835,040 4,110 
		
	
	
		
			 2 557,020 2,884 
			 3 250,940 1,454 
			 4 89,260 547 
			 5 28,390 200 
			 6 9,070 71 
			 7 3,100 29 
			 8 1,070 10 
			 9 360 4 
			 10 or more 190 2 
			 Notes: 1. The data refer to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple. 2. Recipients are as at second Thursday of the month. 3. SHBE is a monthly electronic scan of claimant level data direct from local authority computer systems. It replaces quarterly aggregate clerical returns. The data are available monthly from November 2008 and August 2012 is the most recent available. 4. Number of child dependants: Only count child dependants resident in the household on the extract date who are less than 20 years old. 5. Caseload figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 6. The breakdown of HB expenditure into the above groups is estimated based on a combination of statistical data and local authority subsidy returns, as outturn expenditure data are not available at this level. 7. These estimates are consistent with the latest published expenditure outturn available at: http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/h_tables_budget_ 2012_300812.xls Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE).

Housing Benefit

Chris Skidmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many recipients of housing benefit there were in each income decile before housing costs; and what the cost to the public purse was of benefit to each such decile.

Steve Webb: The requested information is available in the following table:
	
		
			 Number of individuals in receipt of housing benefit and total amount received by income decile, before housing costs: United Kingdom, 2010-11 
			  Decile 
			  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 
			 Number (million) 1.2 2.0 1.6 1.3 0.8 0.5 0.3 0.1 — — 
			 HB expenditure (£ million) 2,850 4,450 3,950 3,600 2,600 1,650 1,350 700 — — 
			 Notes: 1. Benefit receipt is based on self-assessment and therefore may be subject to misreporting. The number of individuals in receipt of housing benefit is based on Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data sourced from the 2010-11 Family Resources Survey (FRS). The FRS is known to undercount receipt of certain benefits. 2. Overall expenditure by decile was produced by applying the proportion in each decile from HBAI to overall HB expenditure for 2010-11. 3. The calculation of income decile uses disposable household income, adjusted using modified OECD equivalisation factors for household size and composition, as an income measure as a proxy for standard of living. 4. Net disposable incomes have been used to answer the question. This includes earnings from employment and self-employment, state support, income from occupational and private pensions, investment income and other sources. Income tax payments, national insurance contributions, council tax/domestic rates and some other payments are deducted from incomes. 5. Figures have been presented on a Before Housing Cost basis only. 6. All estimates are based on survey data and are therefore subject to a degree of uncertainty. Small differences should be treated with caution as these will be affected by sampling error and variability in non-response. 7. The reference period for HBAI figures and HB expenditure is the financial year. 8. Numbers of individuals have been rounded to the nearest hundred thousand individuals. 9. Amounts are presented in 2010-11 prices and have been rounded to the nearest hundred thousand pounds. 10. The numbers, amounts and percentage share of housing benefit for deciles 9 and 10 have been suppressed due to small sample sizes. 11. Figures may not sum due to rounding. 12. Expenditure figures do not sum to total published 2010-11 expenditure due to suppression of deciles 9 and 10 and are rounded to the nearest £50 million. Source: Family Resources Survey (FRS) 2010-11, end of year local authority subsidy returns and DWP statistical data.

Housing Benefit

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of rent arrears has been identified among social tenants participating in the housing benefit demonstration project pilots; and if he will make a statement.

Steve Webb: The direct payment demonstration projects, running from June 2012 until June 2013, are testing how tenants can manage housing benefit monthly payments ahead of the introduction of universal credit from October 2013. The projects will also look at the appropriate level of safeguards needed to help landlords protect their income if tenants fall behind on their rent, as well as the support tenants will also need.
	We anticipate that management information on the performance of the projects, including initial figures on the levels of tenants' payments, will be released before the end of the year. We will place a copy of this information in the Library of the House when it is available.

Jobseeker's Allowance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many benefit sanctions were imposed on jobseeker's allowance claimants in July to September in (a) 2010, (b) 2011 and (c) 2012.

Mark Hoban: Statistics on how many benefit sanctions were imposed on jobseeker's allowance claimants from April 2000 to April 2012, which are the latest data available, can be found at:
	http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=tabtool
	Guidance for users is available at:
	http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/tabtools/guidance.pdf

Social Security Benefits

Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of households who will be affected by the household benefit cap in April 2013; and how many are in (a) social housing, (b) temporary and emergency accommodation and (c) private tenancies (i) nationally and (ii) in each region.

Mark Hoban: The following table shows the breakdown of those estimated to be affected by the benefit cap in April 2013.
	
		
			  Social rented sector Private rented sector Temporary accommodation 
			 North East 500 500 — 
			 North West 1,400 1,600 — 
			 Yorkshire and the Humber 900 900 — 
			 East Midlands 800 700 — 
			 West Midlands 1,600 1,300 100 
			 East of England 1,300 1,400 100 
			 London 10,500 13,700 4,600 
			 South East 1,700 2,600 200 
			 South West 900 1,000 100 
		
	
	
		
			 Wales 700 500 — 
			 Scotland 1,300 700 400 
			 National 21,500 24,900 5,500 
		
	
	The figures presented above are consistent with the recent impact assessment published on 16 July 2012. To note these will not sum to total number of households due to some tenure information missing in the data and to rounding. Temporary accommodation is known to have issues in recording accuracy; therefore the figures presented are subject to an amount of uncertainty.
	In making these estimates we assume that the situation of these households will go unchanged, and they will not take any steps to either work enough hours to qualify for working tax credit, renegotiate their rent in situ, or find alternative accommodation. In all cases the Department is working to support households through this transition, using existing provision through Jobcentre Plus and the Work programme to move as many into work as possible. Therefore, please note that these figures are subject to change prior to the policy being implemented in April 2013.

Social Security Benefits: Carers

John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of support provided to carers in applying for benefits.

Mark Hoban: The Government recognises the valuable contribution carers make both to their families and society as a whole. We are keen to give them the support they need: whether to balance work with their caring responsibilities or to get back to work when their caring responsibilities end or reduce.
	For carers seeking to enter the labour market, Jobcentre Plus advisers ensure that they have the same access to all the programmes, such as the Work programme, as other job seekers, and can be granted exemptions from requirements in certain circumstances. Advisers discuss each individual's circumstances and skills and tailor the help that will best equip them to enter the labour market.
	The jobseeker's allowance (JSA) rules contain special provision to help carers back into employment. There is, in addition, a range of benefits, tax credits and other financial supports that carers may also be able to receive:
	Carer's allowance if they are aged 16 or over and care for someone at least 35 hours a week.
	If an assessment by their local council confirms they need support services to help them in their caring role, the carer can choose direct payments. This allows carers to buy in and arrange help themselves instead of receiving it directly from social services.
	Carer's credit is a national insurance credit which enables carers to build up qualifying years for the basic state pension and additional state pension. This means there will be no gaps in their national insurance record if they need to take on caring responsibilities.
	They may still be able to build up entitlement to additional state pension if they are not working or caring for someone. A carer may also qualify for extra pension credit.
	If they are claiming income support and also entitled to carer's allowance, they may be able to get an extra amount in their income support. This is called the ‘Carer Premium'.
	If they are on a low income and need financial help to pay their rent, they may be able to get housing benefit. They may get extra money if they are caring for a disabled child or adult.
	If they are on a low income and need financial help to pay their council tax, they may be able to get council tax benefit. They may also get extra money if they are caring for a disabled child or adult.
	Personal advisers give advice on local childcare and social care provision to assist carers when attending appointments with a personal adviser or an approved provider, or even when starting work. New markers on customer computer records have also been introduced to identify customers as carers and record whether there are care needs to be addressed.
	The characteristics and circumstances of carers vary enormously, as does the range of benefits they might claim. These markers will therefore help to ensure that carers receive appropriate support and, in time, they will provide data which will inform assessments of the support provided to them.

Social Security Benefits: Fraud

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many cases of benefit fraud his Department has investigated in (a) Suffolk, (b) Bury St Edmunds constituency and (c) England and Wales in each of the last three financial years; and how many such investigations subsequently resulted in a conviction.

Mark Hoban: The number of investigations by DWP for benefit fraud in Bury St Edmunds is not available. The number of investigations for Suffolk, and England and Wales is shown as follows.
	
		
			  Suffolk England and Wales 
			 2009-10 1,187 135,241 
			 2010-11 1,242 140,275 
			 2011-12 1,592 150,231 
		
	
	The number of convictions for benefit fraud in prosecutions taken by DWP in England and Wales is shown as follows. This information is not available by geographical region and was provided by the DWP Prosecution Division, (part of the CPS since 1 April 2012).
	
		
			  England and Wales 
			 2009-10 6,606 
			 2010-11 8,084 
			 2011-12 9,169 
		
	
	The information supplied by the Department has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. It is therefore possible this information may change due to operational reasons.

Unemployment Benefits: Scotland

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency, (b) South Lanarkshire and (c) Scotland have been in receipt of out-of-work benefits for (i) one year, (ii) two years, (iii) three years, (iv) four years, (v) five years and (vi) 10 years.

Mark Hoban: The following tables show the number of people in receipt of out of work benefit in Scotland, South Lanarkshire and Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency by duration.
	
		
			  All Up to one year One to two years Two to three years Three to four years Four to five years Five years and up to 10 years 10 years and over 
			 Scotland 492,310 205,680 58,350 27,800 19,700 15,570 57,290 107,930 
			          
			 Jobseeker’s Allowance 149,510 117,320 24,060 5,530 1,660 440 400 100 
			 Incapacity Benefits 278,470 69,120 23,000 14,650 12,450 11,140 47,660 100,450 
			 Lone Parents 46,610 13,200 8,860 6,100 4,530 3,130 6,730 4,050 
			 Carers 13,260 3,180 2,040 1,380 940 750 2,180 2,780 
			 Other Income Related Benefits 4,460 2,850 380 130 120 110 320 550 
		
	
	
		
			  All Up to one year One to two years Two to three years Three to four years Four to five years Five years and up to 10 years 10 years and over 
			 South Lanarkshire Local Authority 31,510 13,220 3,710 1,720 1,190 1,030 3,490 7,150 
			          
			 Jobseeker’s Allowance 9,670 7,640 1,590 310 100 20 10 * 
			 Incapacity Benefits 17,720 4,390 1,420 900 730 720 2,880 6,670 
			 Lone Parents 2,940 780 570 400 290 220 440 240 
			 Carers 920 230 120 100 60 60 150 190 
			 Other Income Related Benefits 270 170 10 10 10 * 20 40 
		
	
	
		
			  All Up to one year One to two years Two to three years Three to four years Four to five years Five years and up to 10 years 10 years and over 
			 Rutherglen and Hamilton West Parliamentary Constituency 12,540 5,200 1,490 650 430 400 1,350 3,020 
		
	
	
		
			          
			 Jobseeker’s Allowance 3,750 2,950 630 110 40 10 * * 
			 Incapacity Benefits 7,040 1,750 560 350 250 270 1,080 2,780 
			 Lone Parents 1,210 320 230 150 110 90 180 120 
			 Carers 440 120 60 40 20 30 80 90 
			 Other Income Related Benefits 100 60 * * * * * 20 
			 "*" Denotes nil or negligible. Notes: 1. Caseload figures are rounded to the nearest 10 and totals may not sum due to rounding. 2. Statistical Group is a hierarchical variable. A person who fits into more than one category will only appear in the top-most one for which they are eligible. 3. Out of work benefits which are included in this analysis are: Jobseeker’s Allowance Employment and Support Allowance Incapacity Benefit and Severe Disablement Allowance Income Support 4. Incapacity Benefit was replaced by Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for new claims from October 2008. 5. Durations shown are the longest claim duration of the benefits of interest. 6. The duration of claim reflects the longest out-of-work benefit claim for each person: For the Jobseekers statistical group this will be the length of the JSA claim. For the Lone Parent, Carer, and Others on income related benefit statistical groups this will be the length of the IS claim. For the ESA and incapacity benefits claim this will be the length of the IB/SDA or ESA claim if the person is only claiming that benefit, or the oldest of either the IB/SDA/ESA and IS claim if the person is claiming a combination of these benefits. Source: DWP Information, Governance and Security Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study

Universal Credit

David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Warrington North of 17 September 2012, Official Report, columns 537-38W, on universal credit: Warrington and the answer to the hon. Member for Jarrow of 29 October 2012, Official Report, columns 64-65W, on universal credit, on what date he plans to announce what support will be made available to those claimants who do not currently make benefit claims online.

Mark Hoban: A framework that describes how we will help people who cannot use the standard online UC service will be published in the new year. The framework will set out the support available to claimants who will need to make claims online.

Work Capability Assessment

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to page 18 of the Government's response to Professor Malcolm Harrington's Third Independent Review of the Work Capability Assessment, published in November 2012, how many assessments carried out by Atos Healthcare achieved (a) an A, (b) a B, (c) a C and (d) a D grade or lower in each month since May 2010.

Mark Hoban: The number of assessments carried out by Atos Healthcare that achieved an A, B or C grade at audit in each month since May 2010 is shown in the following table.
	
		
			  A B C Total 
			 May 2010 240 54 11 305 
			 June 2010 202 89 10 301 
			 July 2010 211 81 15 307 
			 August 2010 235 60 13 308 
			 September 2010 221 76 14 311 
			 October 2010 207 89 9 305 
			 November 2010 219 78 9 306 
			 December 2010 194 97 18 309 
			 January 2011 204 93 13 310 
			 February 2011 209 86 11 306 
			 March 2011 232 65 10 307 
			 April 2011 213 80 12 305 
			 May 2011 209 85 11 305 
			 June 2011 226 74 6 306 
			 July 2011 199 95 14 308 
			 August 2011 210 85 14 309 
			 September 2011 204 78 20 302 
			 October 2011 219 74 15 308 
			 November 2011 224 71 12 307 
			 December 2011 209 86 12 307 
			 January 2012 214 79 14 307 
		
	
	
		
			 February 2012 220 74 13 307 
			 March 2012 240 59 10 309 
			 April 2012 220 77 9 306 
			 May 2012 221 73 13 307 
			 June 2012 199 . 85 18 302 
			 July 2012 217 89 7 313 
			 August 2012 207 83 14 304 
			 September 2012 201 94 12 307 
			 October 2012 226 70 7 303 
			 November 2012 195 95 13 303 
		
	
	At audit, category D is not a recognised category.

Work Capability Assessment: Appeals

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost to his Department has been as a result of appeals against a work capability assessment decision in the financial year 2012-13 to date; and what estimate he has made of the total cost of appeals for 2012-13.

Mark Hoban: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 30 November 2012, Official Report, column 530W, to the hon. Member for Scunthorpe (Nic Dakin), for the estimate cost to the public purse on appeals against work capability assessment for the first half of 2012-13.

Work Programme

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions who is responsible for imposing sanctions when a work placement provider has made a referral in a Work programme.

Mark Hoban: Where a Work programme participant fails to comply with a mandated activity, it is at the provider's discretion whether to raise a compliance doubt to Jobcentre Plus for consideration. The Jobcentre Plus Decision Maker is responsible for imposing a sanction if they deem it appropriate.

Work Programme

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 29 November 2012, Official Report, column 492W, on the Work programme, whether publication by Work programme providers and sub-contractors of their own job outcome data contravenes the rules on pre-empting official statistics; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Hoban: It would be in contravention of rules on the pre-empting of official statistics for Work programme providers and subcontractors to publish their own job outcome data prior to the release of official statistics. Once official statistics have been released, providers and subcontractors can release their own job outcome data for the period covered by the official statistics.

Work Programme

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 29 November 2012, Official Report, column 492W, on the Work programme, whether prime providers and sub-contractors in the Work programme are free to publish their own job start data.

Mark Hoban: The Department does not hold data on the number of “job starts” to the Work programme and therefore this information is not scheduled for publication. This means there are no restrictions, according to the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice, which prevent providers or subcontractors sharing this information as it will not compromise the release of any future official statistics.

Work Programme: Crawley

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have come off benefits after joining the Work programme in Crawley constituency to date.

Mark Hoban: This information is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

WOMEN AND EQUALITIES

Grants

Margaret Curran: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities what grant-giving programmes are operated by the Government Equalities Office; and which such programmes award grants in Scotland.

Maria Miller: The Government Equalities Office (GEO) currently provides the funding for the Access to Elected Office Fund (A2EO). Scottish residents can apply to the fund if they are applying for UK Westminster elections. GEO also contributes funding to three initiatives led by other Government Departments. These are the BIS Get Mentoring Scheme, which is available to women in Scotland, the DEFRA Rural Growth Network Pilot Scheme and projects funded by the Home Office Violent and Youth Crime Prevention Unit, which do not cover Scotland.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Abu Qatada

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  what the total cost to her Department has been of the detainment and surveillance of Abu Qatada since 2001;
	(2)  what the total costs incurred by her Department have been in respect of the removal of Abu Qatada since 2001.

James Brokenshire: The information requested could be obtained only by the examination of individual records at a disproportionate cost.

Asylum

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people (a) applied for asylum, (b) were granted asylum, (c) appealed against a refusal of refugee status and (d) were successful in such appeals, by gender, in each year since 2005.

Mark Harper: Figures on how many main applicants (a) applied for asylum, (b) were granted asylum, (c) appealed against an initial decision and (d) received an allowed appeal, by gender, have been published in a number of Home Office statistical bulletins over the years.
	The latest release, Immigration Statistics July to September 2012, is available in the Library of the House and from the Home Office Science website at:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/immigration-asylum-research/immigration-q3-2012/
	Information on the number of asylum applications and grants of asylum received for 2005 to 2007 is available from Asylum Statistics 2005, Tables 5.1 and 5.2, Asylum Statistics 2006, Table 5.1 and Asylum Statistics 2007, Table 5:
	http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110218135832/http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/asylum.html

Confiscation Orders: Human Trafficking

Michael Connarty: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department has received from the confiscation of assets of convicted human traffickers in each of the last two years.

Jeremy Browne: The value of confiscation orders enforced against those convicted for human trafficking offences in England and Wales in each of the last two years, as recorded on the Joint Asset Recovery Database, is as follows:
	
		
			  Amount (£) 
			 2010-11 293,329.05 
			 2011-12 184,645.12

Driving Under Influence: Arrests

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  how many people arrested for drink driving in each of the last five years were not UK or EU nationals;
	(2)  how many people arrested for drink driving in each of the last five years were from within the EU.

Jeremy Browne: The information requested is not collected centrally by the Home Office.

Immigration

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will seek a variation of the EU Free Movement Directive 2004 to restrict entry to the UK from Bulgaria and Romania after 2014.

Mark Harper: holding answer 21 November 2012
	Transitional controls limiting Romanian and Bulgarian access to the UK labour market are imposed under the terms of the Accession Treaties rather than the Free Movement Directive. The Government has extended these transitional controls until December 2013 which is the maximum time possible under the Treaties. No further extension is possible.

Immigration

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps the Government is taking to monitor the effect of new family migration rules affecting sponsorship of non-EEA spouses, partners, or adult/elderly dependants, which came into force on 9 July 2012, on family life in the UK.

Mark Harper: holding answer 22 November 2012
	The new family migration rules are intended to reduce burdens on the taxpayer, promote integration and tackle abuse, as reflected in the impact assessment published on 13 June 2012. The Government will keep the impact of the new rules in achieving these objectives and more generally on family life in the UK under review in the light of the published immigration statistics and other sources of information available on the operation of the rules.

National Crime Agency

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the budget of the National Crime Agency is for 2012-13; how much was spent on the establishment of the National Crime Agency by 5 November 2012; and how many people were employed by the National Crime Agency on 5 November 2012.

Jeremy Browne: holding answer 19 November 2012
	The Government has committed to delivering the National Crime Agency (NCA) in 2013 within the combined budgets of its precursor organisations. Subject to the passage of legislation, we expect the NCA to be operational during the financial year 2013-14. Before the establishment of the NCA and to improve the operational response to serious, organised and complex crime, funding has been provided by the Secretary of State for the Home Department for shadow NCA operations. This includes funding for the Director General of the NCA and the Director Designate of the Border Policing Command. Funding has also been provided to the Organised Crime Co-ordination Centre in the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which will form an integral part of the NCA's intelligence hub.
	To oversee the overall implementation of the NCA, a modest programme team has been established in the Home Office.
	Costs are as follows:
	In 2010-11 £0.49 million on NCA programme costs.
	In 2011-12 £1.09 million on NCA programme costs and £0.12 million on shadow NCA operational costs.
	In 2012-13 (to November 2012) £1.36 million on programme costs and £1.41 million on shadow NCA operational costs.
	Until the NCA becomes a legal entity in 2013 it will not itself directly employ staff or have budgets allocated to it.

National Wildlife Crime Unit

George Freeman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what interaction she expects Police and Crime Commissioners to have with the National Wildlife Crime Unit; and if she will make a statement.

Jeremy Browne: Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) will hold Chief Constables to account for the totality of policing in their area. This includes taking account of those crimes like wildlife crime, that have an impact locally but which go beyond traditional force boundaries, and where forces need to work collaboratively, and with partners, national agencies or national arrangements, to ensure such issues are tackled effectively.

Offences against Children

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what additional resources she plans to allocate to police for the investigation into child abuse allegations.

Jeremy Browne: Central Government funding to the police in England and Wales will total £9 billion this year. How the police use their resources is a matter for Police and Crime Commissioners and their Chief Constables.

Offences against Children

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what powers will be available to (a) Keith Bristow and (b) the National Crime Agency in the inquiry into historic allegations of child abuse.

Jeremy Browne: Keith Bristow has been invited by the Chief Constable of North Wales to lead the review into historic allegations of child abuse in North Wales. In doing so, he will draw on the resources and expertise of a multi-agency team made up of the NCA's precursor organisations, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), together with the police and other relevant agencies. As a Chief Constable currently on secondment to the Home Office, Keith Bristow holds the powers of a constable. The officers supporting the review (whether SOCA, CEOP or police etc.) will hold the powers of their home agency or force.

Offences against Children: British Nationals Abroad

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many British citizens have been (a) investigated and (b) charged with sexual offences against children abroad since extra-territorial legislation came into force in the UK.

Jeremy Browne: Data held centrally in an aggregated format provide information on offences provided by the statutes under which proceedings are brought, but not all the specific circumstances of each case. It is not possible to identify separately from this centrally held information the jurisdiction in which offences have taken place, nor the nationality of each defendant. However, the police and CPS take very seriously their responsibility to protect children both at home and abroad, and work closely together to prosecute robustly cases using section 72 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 where appropriate.

CABINET OFFICE

Alcoholic Drinks: Females

Diane Abbott: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what estimate he has made of the average number of alcohol units consumed by women in each (a) socio-economic group, (b) ethnic group and (c) age group since 2008.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Glen Watson
	As Director General for ONS, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking what estimate he has made of the average number of alcohol units consumed by women in each (a) socio-economic group, (b) ethnic group and (c) age group since 2008. (131888)
	Estimates of average weekly drinking can be obtained from the General Lifestyle Survey, a multi-purpose continuous sample survey of people living in private households in Great Britain.
	The average weekly number of alcohol units consumed by women is based on the updated method of converting volumes of alcoholic drinks to units of alcohol consumed, which now includes data on wine glass size. The tables below provide the figures for average weekly alcohol consumption for women in each (a) socio-economic group, (b) ethnic group and (c) age group between 2008 and 2010 (the latest period available).
	The figures relating to ethnic groups are based on small sample sizes, and therefore changes between years should be treated with caution.
	
		
			 Table 1: Average weekly alcohol consumption (units) for women, by socio-economic group, 2008-10—Women aged 16 and over, Great Britain 2008-10(1) 
			  Average weekly alcohol consumption 
			 Socio-economic group(2) 2008 2009 2010 
			 Managerial and professional occupations 10.1 9.8 9.1 
			 Intermediate occupations 8.1 7.7 7.6 
			 Routine and manual occupations 7.3 7.1 6.6 
			 (1 )Results for all three years include longitudinal data. (2) Figures do not include full-time students, members of the Armed Forces, the long-term unemployed and those who have never worked. Source: General Lifestyle Survey, Office for National Statistics. 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 2: Average weekly alcohol consumption (units) for women, by ethnic group, 2008-10—Women aged 16 and over, Great Britain 2008-10(1) 
			  Average weekly alcohol consumption 
			 Ethnic group 2008 2009 2010 
			 White 8.9 8.5 8.1 
			 Mixed 9.1 6.7 8.7 
			 Asian or Asian British 2.4 1.1 0.8 
		
	
	
		
			 Black or Black British 2.1 2.6 2.5 
			 Chinese 1.3 1.8 4.9 
			 Other ethnic group 4.3 2.4 2.3 
			 (1) Results for all three years include longitudinal data. Source: General Lifestyle Survey: Office for National Statistics. 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 3: Average weekly alcohol consumption (units) for women, by age group, 2008-10—Women aged 16 and over, Great Britain 2008-10(1) 
			  Average weekly alcohol consumption 
			 Age group 2008 2009 2010 
			 16-24 10.3 10.3 8.4 
			 25-44 9.6 8.7 8.1 
			 45-64 9.0 8.9 8.8 
			 65 and over 4.7 4.6 4.6 
			 (1) Results for all three years include longitudinal data. Source: General Lifestyle Survey, Office for National Statistics.

Charitable Donations

Robert Flello: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what estimate the Office for Civil Society has made of what the likely cost to (a) charities which hold them of the removal of national exemption orders and (b) local authorities to administer extra licence applications caused by the removal of national exemption orders.

Nick Hurd: There are no plans to abolish national exemption orders. However, there is a general recognition that some changes are needed to the current regime. The Cabinet Office plans to work closely with the charitable sector, local authorities and other interested parties on changes to the scheme for national exemption orders, which will include assessing the impact of any proposed changes.

Charities

Peter Bone: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office 
	(1)  what guidance his Department has given to Ministers on their involvement in the award of public funding to charities;
	(2)  what mechanism his Department has put in place to oversee the allocation of Government funding to charities;
	(3)  what procedure his Department used to grant funding for 2013-14 and 2014-15 to the Booktrust; and what were the amounts awarded;
	(4)  if he will publish all (a) emails and (b) other correspondence received or sent by the Government in relation to the award of grants to the Booktrust in (i) 2013-14 and (ii) 2014-15.

Nick Hurd: Ministers have a legitimate and proper role in decisions relating to the award of public funding to charities. The decision to award grant funding to Booktrust for 2013-15 was taken by the Secretary of State for Education on the basis of advice from officials. The amounts awarded to Booktrust are £6 million for the period 2013-14 and a further £6 million in 2014-15. Internal records and e-mails relating to such decisions are not routinely disclosed. The cabinet secretary has replied to a letter from my hon. Friend and a copy has been placed in the Library of the House.

Emigration

Mark Field: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the sample size of the International Passenger Survey on people emigrating from the UK was for each (a) ethnic grouping and (b) country of birth in each year since 2004.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Glen Watson, dated December 2012
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to respond to your Parliamentary Question what the sample size of the International Passenger Survey on people emigrating from the UK was for each (a) ethnic grouping and (b) country of birth in each year since 2004. 132277
	The International Passenger Survey (IPS), used by ONS to calculate estimates of long-term international migration (LTIM), does not collect any information on the ethnicity of respondents to the survey.
	The IPS does, however, collect data on the country of birth of respondents to the survey. Table 1 shows the country of birth of respondents emigrating from the UK for a period of 12 months or more, from 2004 to 2011.
	
		
			 Number of outflow migrant contacts in the IPS by country of birth, 2004 to 2011 
			 United Kingdom 
			  Year of interview 
			 Country of birth 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 
			 Afghanistan 1 1 — 4 1 — — 2 
			 Albania — 1 1 1 — 1 — 2 
			 Algeria 1 — — — 1 1 1 2 
			 Angola — — 2 2 — 4 — — 
			 Antigua and Barbuda — — — — — 1 — — 
			 Argentina 2 — — 1 2 3 1 — 
			 Armenia — — — — — 1 — — 
			 Australia (Group) 65 70 64 238 223 136 102 90 
			 Austria 2 1 2 3 2 3 2 3 
			 Azerbaijan 1 — 1 — — 1 1 — 
			 Bahamas, The — — — — — 2 — — 
			 Bahrain — 2 — 4 1 1 — — 
			 Bangladesh 1 — 2 12 8 13 8 9 
			 Barbados — 1 — — 1 — 1 — 
		
	
	
		
			 Belarus — — — — 1 — — — 
			 Belgium 2 — 2 1 1 1 3 1 
			 Belize — — — 1 — — 1 — 
			 Benin — — — — — 1 — — 
			 Bolivia — 1 — — 1 — 1 — 
			 Bosnia Herzegovina — — — — — 1 1 1 
			 Botswana — 1 — 2 1 2 2 2 
			 Brazil 5 7 7 27 22 12 16 10 
			 Brunei — 1 — 3 4 2 1 1 
			 Bulgaria — — — — 2 4 7 6 
			 Burma/Myanmar — — — 1 3 — 1 1 
			 Burundi — 1 — 1 — — — — 
			 Cambodia/Kampuchea — — — 1 — — — — 
			 Cameroon — — — 1 — — — 1 
			 Canada 13 7 11 29 18 26 26 17 
			 Chile — 1 — 2 1 3 — 2 
			 China (exc. Taiwan) 16 17 22 71 64 70 80 73 
			 Colombia 2 2 — 6 2 4 8 5 
			 Costa Rica — — 1 — — — — — 
			 Croatia 1 — — — 3 2 — 1 
			 Cuba — — — — — 1 — — 
			 Czech Republic 1 6 5 3 3 14 9 14 
			 Denmark 1 3 2 5 5 5 5 3 
			 East Timor — — — 1 — — — — 
			 Ecuador — — 2 1 2 — 1 — 
			 Egypt 1 — — 2 2 4 2 2 
			 El Salvador — — — 1 — — — — 
			 Estonia — — 2 — 1 — 1 1 
			 Ethiopia — — — 3 — — — — 
			 Faroe Islands — — — — — — 1 — 
			 Fiji 1 — — 1 1 — — — 
			 Finland (Group) 1 — 2 4 6 4 6 11 
			 France 10 12 7 16 21 34 35 31 
			 Gambia, The — — — — — — — 1 
			 Georgia — 1 1 — 1 — — 1 
			 Germany 10 11 8 31 24 40 32 35 
			 Ghana — — 1 4 1 1 5 3 
			 Gibraltar 2 — — — — — — 1 
			 Greece 7 4 5 9 5 16 11 8 
			 Grenada — — — 1 — — — 1 
			 Guatemala 1 — — — — — — 1 
			 Guyana 1 — 1 2 — — — — 
			 Hong Kong 7 4 6 14 24 23 17 16 
			 Hungary 2 3 1 — 4 20 14 10 
			 Iceland — — — — 2 1 2 3 
			 India 16 24 24 131 130 132 139 166 
			 Indonesia 1 — 1 5 3 3 3 1 
			 Iran 2 1 1 6 4 4 2 7 
			 Iraq 2 1 2 — 1 2 4 5 
			 Ireland—Eire 6 5 5 17 13 11 15 13 
			 Israel — — 2 1 1 3 2 3 
			 Italy 4 3 2 10 14 16 21 17 
			 Ivory Coast — — — — — — 1 — 
			 Jamaica 2 2 — 5 4 3 2 2 
			 Japan 18 7 13 47 33 28 23 23 
			 Jordan 2 1 — 4 3 4 1 2 
			 Kazakhstan — — — — — — 5 4 
			 Kenya 3 2 1 9 5 16 1 4 
			 Korea, South/Republic 3 7 6 15 14 13 25 18 
			 Kosovo — — — — — — 1 1 
			 Kuwait — — 1 2 2 1 2 1 
			 Kyrgyzstan — 1 — — — — — — 
			 Laos — — — — 1 — — — 
		
	
	
		
			 Latvia — — 1 — — 2 5 9 
			 Lebanon 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 
			 Liberia — — — 1 — — — — 
			 Libya — 3 — 1 1 4 6 3 
			 Lithuania — 2 5 2 2 5 5 11 
			 Luxembourg — — — — — — — 1 
			 Macao — 1 — — — — — — 
			 Macedonia — — 1 2 — 1 — — 
			 Madagascar — — — — — — 1 — 
			 Malawi 1 — 1 3 2 4 2 2 
			 Malaysia 19 9 8 36 28 20 17 26 
			 Malta 1 — — — 1 3 1 1 
			 Mauritius 1 1 — 3 8 8 9 4 
			 Mexico 1 2 1 3 8 3 5 3 
			 Moldova — 1 1 — 2 — — — 
			 Mongolia — — — 1 — 3 — 1 
			 Montserrat — — — — 1 — — — 
			 Morocco — — — 1 — — 2 — 
			 Mozambique — — — — — 1 — — 
			 Namibia 3 — — 1 — 2 1 — 
			 Nepal 1 — 2 1 3 2 2 4 
			 Netherlands 2 3 4 2 6 7 7 8 
			 New Caledonia — — 1 — — — — — 
			 New Zealand 25 34 25 80 76 61 40 37 
			 Nicaragua — — — — 1 — — — 
			 Nigeria 2 2 4 15 7 11 12 9 
			 Northern Cyprus — — — — 1 1 — — 
			 Norway (Group) 2 3 3 11 9 2 4 6 
			 Oman 1 1 1 — 1 1 4 2 
			 Pakistan 3 11 3 25 26 34 23 17 
			 Palestine — — — — — 1 — — 
			 Papua New Guinea — — — — — 1 — 2 
			 Peru — — — — 4 — 1 2 
			 Philippines — 2 1 11 11 11 9 15 
			 Poland — 4 8 26 67 84 57 51 
			 Portugal (Group) 1 1 — 2 3 7 12 3 
			 Qatar — — — — — 2 1 — 
			 Romania 1 1 1 1 2 10 4 12 
			 Russia — 2 2 2 1 5 7 1 
			 Rwanda — — — — — 1 — — 
			 Samoa, Western — — — — — 1 — — 
			 Saudi Arabia 2 1 1 9 6 7 10 12 
			 Senegal — — — — — — — 2 
			 Seychelles — — 1 1 2 — 1 — 
			 Sierra Leone — — — 2 1 4 3 — 
			 Singapore 5 2 2 8 7 3 5 6 
			 Slovakia 1 2 — 5 11 15 7 9 
			 Slovenia — — — — 1 5 — 1 
			 Solomon Islands — — — — 1 — — — 
			 Somalia — — — 2 2 — — 1 
			 South Africa 25 42 36 101 57 49 51 23 
			 Southern Cyprus — 1 1 7 3 10 6 8 
			 Spain (Group) 9 5 11 6 15 22 33 30 
			 Sri Lanka 2 6 6 4 8 3 5 7 
			 St Helena/Ascension/ Tristan da Cunha — — — 1 — — — — 
			 St Lucia — — — — 1 — — — 
			 Sudan — 1 — — 3 2 1 — 
			 Suriname — — — 1 — — — — 
			 Swaziland — — 1 — — — 1 — 
			 Sweden 6 6 2 20 18 12 16 11 
			 Switzerland 2 2 3 1 2 5 12 5 
			 Syria — — — — — 1 1 — 
		
	
	
		
			 Taiwan (China) 6 4 6 13 22 11 6 4 
			 Tanzania — 1 — — 5 — — 3 
			 Thailand 6 2 2 12 16 17 15 13 
			 Tonga — — — 1 — — — — 
			 Trinidad and Tobago 1 2 1 — 3 — — 2 
			 Tunisia — — — 1 — 1 1 1 
			 Turkey 1 1 2 4 10 8 11 6 
			 Turkmenistan — — — — — — 1 — 
			 Uganda — — — 2 4 3 — 2 
			 Ukraine — 1 1 5 3 1 2 1 
			 United Arab Emirates — 1 — 7 9 4 3 1 
			 United Kingdom (Group) 382 374 387 1,064 962 778 728 742 
			 USA (Group) 20 25 29 69 69 75 64 49 
			 Uzbekistan — — — — 1 — 3 — 
			 Venezuela — 1 1 1 — — 1 — 
			 Vietnam 1 — — 4 9 3 6 3 
			 Yugoslavia: Serbia — 1 — 1 2 1 — 1 
			 Zambia — 1 2 5 6 2 1 1 
			 Zimbabwe 4 3 4 13 8 8 5 10 
			 Total outflow contacts 755 781 789 2,362 2,231 2,043 1,888 1,824 
			 Notes: 1. Countries of birth for which there were no IPS contacts between 2004 and 2011 have been removed from the table. 2. “—” = No contact. This value is used where the International Passenger Survey has had no contact with any migrant having the particular characteristics in the selected year. For example, if no one born in Australia was interviewed by the IPS in a given year the estimate will be set to “—”. Please note, where no contact has occurred no estimate is possible, but this does not imply that the actual number is zero (although it is probably low).

Natural Resources

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office 
	(1)  on how many occasions the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has discussed (a) the work of the Natural Capital Committee and (b) the state of natural capital in the UK.
	(2)  if the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs will discuss the annual State of Natural Capital Report.

Oliver Letwin: In line with the practice of previous governments, information relating to the proceedings of Cabinet Committees, including what issues were discussed, is generally not disclosed as to do so could harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion.

Natural Resources

Simon Wright: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what progress has been made by the Office for National Statistics towards inclusion of the value of natural capital into the UK environmental accounts by 2020.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Glen Watson, dated 5 December 2012
	As Director General of the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking, what progress has been made by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) towards inclusion of the value of natural capital into the UK environmental accounts by 2020 (131789).
	In November 2011, the ONS published a paper "Towards a Sustainable Environment - UK Natural Capital and Ecosystem Economic Accounting" to outline its approach to including natural capital in the UK Environmental Accounts. In terms of ecosystems accounting, the paper identified the compilation of a pilot ecosystems account for woodlands as an important first step in the process of increasing the coverage of natural capital within the UK Environmental Accounts. The ONS has already started work on a pilot woodlands ecosystem account.
	In July 2012, the ONS published a consultation on "Accounting for the value of nature in the UK", which set out the rationale for the accounts, provided a tentative outline timetable of development work, and sought views on the scope of the accounts and relative priorities for their development.
	The consultation, which was completed in September 2012, was followed up by a stakeholder workshop in October to discuss the priorities and scope of a roadmap which will provide a more detailed timetable for the development of the accounts. The roadmap will be published on 19 December 2012, which will provide a detailed timetable for including natural capital into the UK Environmental Accounts by 2020.

Pay

Dominic Raab: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many employees in his Department were paid (a) between £80,000 and £100,000 per year and (b) in excess of £100,000 per year in each of the last five years.

Francis Maude: The following table shows the number of staff in my Department that were paid (a) between £80,000 and £100,000 per year and (b) in excess of £100,000 per year, in each of the last five years.
	However it is important to note that there have been substantial machinery of government changes since May 2010, with functions brought into the Cabinet Office from elsewhere, and therefore figures from before May 2010 are not directly comparable.
	
		
			 As at April each year £80,000 to £100,000 More than £100,000 
			 2012 53 44 
			 2011 49 37 
			 2010 40 45 
			 2009 59 60 
			 2008 58 56

Public Sector: Standards

Stephen Timms: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office in what circumstances the publication of performance data by individual public service providers is regarded as inappropriate because it pre-empts the subsequent publication of official statistics.

Nick Hurd: Preserving the independence and quality of official statistics is overseen by the UK Statistics Authority. Each individual set of official statistics has a process that underpins it, and the responsible Departments should consider how that relates to other pieces of data. When necessary, the National Statistician can be consulted for professional advice.

Public Sector: Standards

Stephen Timms: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office with reference to his Department's Open Public Services White Paper, whether the commitment that providers of public services from all sectors will need to publish information on performance applies in the case of services for which official statistics are already published.

Oliver Letwin: In the Open Public Services 2012 update the Government committed to ensure that key data about public services (including data about user satisfaction and performance of providers from all sectors) are in the public domain in a comparable and accessible form.
	In meeting this commitment publication may take a number of forms, including the publication of official statistics. Arrangements are decided by the respective Department or organisation.

Public Sector: Standards

Stephen Timms: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office with reference to his Department's Open Public Services White Paper, for which public services the commitment that providers of public services from all sectors will need to publish information on user satisfaction has so far been (a) implemented and (b) not implemented; and if he will make a statement.

Oliver Letwin: In the Open Public Services 2012 update the Government committed to ensure that key data about public services (including data about user satisfaction and performance of providers from all sectors) are in the public domain in a comparable and accessible form.
	The release of data is a process of continuous improvement and we have made significant progress in releasing user satisfaction, spending and performance data in a range of individual service areas. All Whitehall Departments have published Open Data Strategies which will continue to put the Open Data agenda deep in the delivery of frontline Government services and will result in the release of more accessible data.
	These were published in June 2012 and can be accessed at:
	www.data.gov.uk

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Lord Lieutenants

Kevan Jones: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether potential candidates for lord lieutenant posts are judged against the Nolan principles on standards in public life.

Chloe Smith: A lord lieutenant is Her Majesty's representative in the county. They are not public appointments, but those appointed are expected to maintain the highest standards in public life.

BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS

Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

Pauline Latham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps the Government is taking to sign up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative as a membership country.

Jo Swinson: The Government is committed to strong transparency rules and the need to encourage more countries to sign up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. There have been meetings with NGOs and industry to discuss this issue.

Pay

Dominic Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many employees in his Department were paid (a) between £80,000 and £100,000 per year and (b) in excess of £100,000 per year in each of the last five years.

Jo Swinson: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) was created in June 2009 following the merger of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Department for Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
	The number of employees in BIS who were paid (a) between £80,000 and £100,000 per year and (b) in excess of £100,000 are set out in the BIS Annual Reports of 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12.
	
		
			  At 31 March: 
			  2010 2011 2012 
			 £80,000 to £99,999 67 51 44 
			 £100,000 + 44 37 37

Regional Growth Fund

Andrew Bingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of successful bids in each round of the Regional Growth Fund in (a) the East Midlands and (b) England have payments outstanding.

Michael Fallon: A payment is outstanding when a beneficiary has put in a properly documented claim that we have not yet paid. We aim to process and pay grant claims within 30 days of them being submitted.
	There are currently no payments outstanding in the East Midlands. There are six outstanding payments in England. Two of these are in relation to Round 1 projects.

HEALTH

Abu Qatada

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost to the NHS has been of services provided to Abu Qatada since 2001.

Daniel Poulter: Patient medical records are confidential and can be accessed only by medical professionals involved directly in that patient's care, therefore the costs associated with an individual's treatment are not collected centrally.

Advertising

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his Department plans to spend on (a) television, (b) radio, (c) print and (d) online advertising in (i) 2011-12 and (ii) 2012-13.

Daniel Poulter: The Department's media spend for 2011-12 is as follows:
	
		
			 Older people media spend 
			 Campaign 2011-12 spend (£) 
			 Dementia  
			 Television (TV) 960,000 
			 Radio 280,000 
			 Print(1) 270,000 
			 Online 100,000 
			   
			 Flu  
			 Print(1) 60,000 
			   
			 Stroke  
			 TV 720,000 
			 Radio 40,000 
			   
			 Cancer  
			 TV 1,590,000 
			 Radio 670,000 
			 Print(1) 1,140,000 
			 Online 370,000 
			   
			 111  
			 Radio 30,000 
			 Print(1) 560,000 
			 (1) Print includes pharmacy bags, outdoor and door drops. 
		
	
	
		
			 Change4Life media spend 
			 Campaign 2011-12 spend (£) 
			 Alcohol  
			 TV 810,000 
			 Online 100,000 
			   
			 Summer activity/Games4Life  
			 TV 1,080,000 
		
	
	
		
			 Print 10,000 
			 Online 650,000 
			   
			 January healthy eating  
			 Print 350,000 
			 Online 270,000 
		
	
	
		
			 Tobacco media spend 
			 Campaign 2011-12 spend (£) 
			 Smokefree Generation  
			 TV 1,100,000 
			 Radio 250,000 
			 Online 40,000 
			   
			 January Quit Kit 2012  
			 TV 1,600,000 
			 Radio 410,000 
			 Online 80,000 
		
	
	
		
			 Total media spend 
			  2011-12 spend (£) 
			 Total TV 7,860,000 
			 Total Radio 1,680,000 
			 Total Print 2,390,000 
			 Total Online 1,610,000 
			 Notes: 1. Advertising spend is defined as covering only media spend (inclusive of agency commissions but excluding production costs, COI commission (where applicable) and VAT). 2. These figures do not include departmental recruitment/classified advertising costs and ad hoc spend under £10,000. 3. These figures may include occasional minor spend through COI by NHS organisations, to supplement national campaigns in their area. While this expenditure has been excluded as far as possible so that this spreadsheet reflects central departmental spend, it would incur disproportionate cost to validate that every item of NHS expenditure has been removed. 
		
	
	We are unable to provide planned spend figures for 2012-13 public health campaigns as we are currently in that financial year and campaign budget allocations are still being finalised. A full evaluation of all 2012-13 campaigns, including costs, will be completed and published in line with the Department's freedom of information publication scheme.

Alcoholic Drinks: East Midlands

Andrew Bingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many alcohol-related hospital admissions there were in (a) High Peak constituency, (b) Derbyshire and (c) the East Midlands in each of the last five years; and if he will make an assessment of those figures compared to the UK averages for such admissions.

Daniel Poulter: The tables contain the sum of the estimated alcohol attributable fractions for admissions for High Peak parliamentary constituency, Derbyshire county primary care trust (PCT) of residence, East Midlands strategic health authority (SHA) of residence, England (residence), population data and crude admission rates for 2007-08 to 2011-12.
	It should be noted that a parliamentary constituency breakdown is not possible before 2008-09.
	It is not possible to make an assessment of such admissions compared to UK averages, only England figures can be provided for comparison.
	It should be noted that these figures are not a count of people and do not represent an actual number of admissions that were attributable to alcohol.
	Alcohol attributable fractions (AAF) are based on the proportion of a given diagnosis or injury that is estimated to be attributed to alcohol. Some diagnoses or injuries will, by definition, be wholly attributable to alcohol and have an AAF of one, others will only be partly attributable to alcohol and have an AAF greater than zero, but less than one. Diagnoses or injuries that are not attributable at all to alcohol will have an AAF of zero.
	These figures are derived by summing all AAFs for the relevant admissions and should therefore only be interpreted as an estimate of the number of admissions that can be attributed to alcohol.
	
		
			 A sum of the alcohol attributable fractions(1) for admissions to hospital in High Peak parliamentary constituency(2), Derbyshire county PCT of residence(3), East Midlands strategic health authority of residence and England (residence)(4), population estimates(5) and crude rate per 100,000 population for the years 2007-08 to 2011-12(6) 
			 Region (of residence) 
			  2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 
			 High Peak constituency n/a 1,909 1,840 2,042 2,270 
			 Derbyshire county PCT 13,373 15,344 16,488 17,935 17,566 
			 East Midlands SHA 74,932 82,734 91,502 98,318 97,592 
			 England 855,229 940,403 1,052,068 1,163,565 1,215,083 
		
	
	
		
			 Population estimates 
			  2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 
			 High Peak constituency 91,600 92,100 92,400 92,600 n/a 
			 Derbyshire county PCT 720,700 724,400 726,300 729,800 737,400 
			 East Midlands SHA 4,397,000 4,429,400 4,451,200 4,481,400 4,537,400 
			 England 51,106,200 51,464,600 51,809,700 52,234,000 53,107,200 
		
	
	
		
			 Crude rate per 100,000 population 
			  2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 
			 High Peak constituency n/a 2,073 1,991 2,205 n/a 
			 Derbyshire county PCT 1,856 2,118 ' 2,270 2,458 2,382 
			 East Midlands SHA 1,704 1,868 2,056 2,194 2,151 
			 England 1,673 1,827 2,031 2,228 2,288 
			 (1) Alcohol-related admissions The number of alcohol-related admissions is based on the methodology developed by the North West Public Health Observatory (NWPHO), which uses 48 indicators for alcohol-related illnesses, determining the proportion of a wide range of diseases and injuries that can be partly attributed to alcohol as well as those that are, by definition, wholly attributable to alcohol. Further information on these proportions can be found at: www.nwph.net/nwpho/publications/AlcoholAttributableFractions.pdf The application of the NWPHO methodology has recently been updated and is now available directly from HES. As such, information about episodes estimated to be alcohol related may be slightly different from previously published data. Alcohol attributable fractions are not applicable to children under 16. Therefore figures for this age group relate only to wholly-attributable admissions, where the attributable fraction is one. (2) Parliamentary constituency This is the Westminster parliamentary constituency where the patient lives. This is only available for 2008-09 onwards. (3) Primary Care Trust/Strategic Health Authority(PCT/SHA) residence The SHA or PCT containing the patient’s normal home address. This does not necessarily reflect where the patient was treated as they may have travelled to another SHA/PCT for treatment. A change in methodology in 2011-12 resulted in an increase in the number of records where the PCT or SHA of residence was unknown. From 2006-07 to 2010-11 the current PCT and SHA of residence fields were populated from the recorded patient postcode. In order to improve data completeness, if the postcode was unknown the PCT, SHA and country of residence were populated from the PCT/SHA value supplied by the provider. From April 2011-12 onwards if the patient postcode is unknown the PCT, SHA and country of residence are listed as unknown. (4) Assessing growth through time (Inpatients) HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice. For example, changes in activity may be due to changes in the provision of care. (5) Office for National Statistics (ONS) Population Estimates Population figures have been rounded to the nearest 100. ONS mid year population estimates are used for PCT, SHA and England areas. ONS publishes experimental population estimates at parliamentary constituency level up to mid-2010: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/sape/parliament-constituency-pop-est/index.html (6) Crude Rate per 100,000 population Care should be taken when interpreting crude rates since different areas have different populations. Alcohol fractions are assigned to a range of conditions and causes according to the gender and age of the patient therefore areas with different population profiles are expected to have a different number of alcohol attributable admissions. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre 
		
	
	Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.

Cancer

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the current average waiting time is for cancer treatments in (a) Suffolk Primary Care Trust and (b) England and Wales.

Anna Soubry: Statistics on average waiting times for cancer treatment are not collected centrally. The cancer waiting time standard of a maximum wait of two months (62 days) from urgent referral for suspected cancer to first cancer treatment was introduced for all patients in England from December 2005. Statistics showing overall performance are published on a quarterly basis on the Department's website at:
	http://transparency.dh.gov.uk/cancer-waiting-times/
	Performance against this standard for the last period for which figures are available (July, August and September 2012) show the following performance levels for Suffolk Primary Care Trust (PCT) and England.
	
		
			 Organisation Total treated for cancer following urgent referral for suspected cancer Number treated within two months (62-days) Percentage performance Operational standard(3) (percentage) 
			 Suffolk PCT(1) 415 342 82.4 85 
			 England(2) 30,310 26,454 87.3 — 
			 (1) The PCT figure is drawn from the quarterly commissioner based official statistics on cancer waiting times, which are derived from patient records submitted by NHS providers. (2) The England figure relates to ‘all English providers’ and is drawn from the quarterly provider based national statistics on cancer waiting times, the most complete assessment of performance available to the Department of Health. (3) As with all monitored waiting times, 100% achievement is not possible and therefore not expected from the NHS. The Department has published “operational standards” that identify an expected level of performance based on case mix, clinical requirements, potential levels of patients unfit for treatment and patient choice. 
		
	
	The Department does not hold or publish statistics on cancer waiting times for Welsh national health service organisations.

Cancer: Easington

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health where the nearest cancer centre is at which cancer patients in Easington constituency can receive stereotactic ablative radiotherapy treatment for tumours of the (a) prostate, (b) lung, (c) liver and (d) brain.

Anna Soubry: The information requested is not centrally held. The hon. Member may wish to contact the North of England Cancer Network, which may hold some relevant information.

Care Homes: Fees and Charges

Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 22 November 2012, Official Report, column 575W, on care homes: fees and charges, if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of capping care costs at £60,000 using the micro-simulation model set out on pages 33 to 34 of his Department's July 2012 report entitled Caring for Our Future: progress report on funding reform; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the calculation of the estimate.

Norman Lamb: The progress report gives the costs of five specific caps within a wide range of £25,000 to £100,000 to illustrate and give a sense of the scale of costs for all the different cap levels. We do not hold information on the cost for a £60,000 cap.

Diabetes

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he plans to take to increase the number of patients not previously diagnosed with diabetes who receive diabetes testing.

Anna Soubry: Eligible people between the ages of 40-74 are offered the NHS Health Check. This programme, expected to reach some 15 million people, is a risk assessment and risk management programme for vascular disease and as such it will also identify those at high risk of diabetes.
	According to the evidence base used to develop the programme, the NHS Health Check has the potential to detect at least 20,000 cases of diabetes or kidney disease earlier, improving their health outcomes. It could also prevent 4,000 people a year from developing diabetes by offering appropriate lifestyle advice.
	The NHS Health Check programme has been running since 2009, with phased implementation. The programme is a key performance measure in the NHS Operating Framework for 2012-13, and take-up by the eligible population is an indicator in the Public Health Outcomes Framework. It has been mandated to local authorities from April 2013.

Family Nurse Partnership Programme

Andrea Leadsom: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many families have received assistance from family nurse partnerships in each year since the inception of the scheme.

Daniel Poulter: The Government has committed to increase the number of places on the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) programme to at least 13,000 by April 2015. Good progress is being made with 10,000 places available at November 2012.
	FNP nurses visit families regularly over two and a half years from early in pregnancy until their child reaches two years of age. From its inception in April 2007, to the end of November 2012, 11,861 families have enrolled on FNP in England.
	The number of families benefiting from FNP in each full year since its inception was:
	
		
			  Number 
			 2007-08 1,185 
			 2008-09 1,778 
			 2009-10 3,855 
			 2010-11 5,615 
			 2011-12 6,755 
			 2012-13(1) 7,385 
			 (1 )To date (1 April to 30 November).

Health Services: Foreign Nationals

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  how many health tourists have been treated (a) by NHS South Birmingham and (b) in Birmingham in each of the last three years;
	(2)  what the cost to the NHS was of treating non-EU health tourists in (a) England, (b) NHS South Birmingham and (c) Birmingham in each of the last three years.

Anna Soubry: Anyone not ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, classed as an overseas visitor, is chargeable for national health service hospital treatment unless an exemption from charges applies under Regulations. However, any chargeable overseas visitor who has an urgent or immediate need for treatment will be provided with it even if they have not paid in advance, and any debts will then be pursued.
	As the NHS does not categorise and record data under a definition of “health tourist”, the Department does not hold the information requested. However, the Department does hold data from NHS trusts’ and primary care trusts’ accounts relating to income received from overseas visitors liable for charges. This means the total amount that they invoiced overseas visitors for NHS hospital treatment, not what they received from them in payment. The figures for the last three years are provided in the following table. The Chairman of Monitor has provided similar data for NHS foundation trusts. The data include any charges to overseas visitors from the European Union.
	
		
			 Income received from overseas visitors 
			 £000 
			  2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 
			 England 26,927 35,433 32,738 
			 NHS South Birmingham(1) 89 68 70 
			 Birmingham(2) 236 277 452 
			 (1) Incorporating University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham Women's NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Birmingham, Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust and South Birmingham PCT. (2) Incorporating NHS bodies within NHS South Birmingham, plus Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust and Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust. Source: NHS Trust and PCT Audited Summarisation Schedules and audited foundation trust data from Monitor.

Hospitals: Food

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what guidelines his Department issues to hospitals for the use of glucose-fructose syrup in meals served to patients;
	(2)  whether his Department provides guidelines to food manufacturers on the use of glucose-fructose syrup in food products.

Anna Soubry: The Department does not provide guidelines on the use of glucose-fructose syrup either to food manufacturers or to hospitals.
	Last year the Government issued a challenge to the nation to reduce its overconsumption of calories. Food and drink manufacturers are already making a contribution to helping people reduce their calorie intake by signing up to the Responsibility Deal calorie reduction pledge. Action being taken under the pledge includes reductions in the sugar content of food and drink.
	As part of the Government's improving hospital food programme, we encourage hospitals to adopt Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services. These include criteria that will help move food provision towards healthier options.

Hospitals: Infectious Diseases

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients contracted (a) MRSA and (b) other hospital-acquired infections in NHS hospitals in each NHS hospital trust in England and Wales in each of the last three years.

Daniel Poulter: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections and C. difficile infections are at their lowest levels since mandatory surveillance began. Compared to the 12 months to May 2010, the latest annual data show that MRSA bloodstream infections have fallen by 48% and C. difficile infections by 38%.
	Data on health care associated infections in Wales are collated and published by the Welsh Healthcare Associated Infection Programme. Information on all health care associated infections covering England is not collected routinely by the Health Protection Agency. However, the agency does collect data on specific health care associated infections in England, such as MRSA bacteraemia, Clostridium difficile infection, and Methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia, that are detected and reported by an acute NHS Trust laboratory.
	The information on these infections has been placed in the Library.

Hospitals: Private Finance Initiative

Jim Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the (a) annual cost, (b) the total cost and (c) length of contract is for the private finance initiative contracts with (i) Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich and (ii) Princess Royal University Hospital, Farnborough; and what (A) financial and (B) special conditions attach to each contract.

Daniel Poulter: Information on the national health service bodies (NHS trusts, NHS foundation trusts and primary care trusts) which have private finance initiative contracts can be found on the Treasury's website at:
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/pfi_current_projects_ list_march_2012.xls
	The health sector schemes are clearly marked “Department of Health” (column C) and the NHS schemes “DH-Acute (ie Hospitals)” (column E). Row 425 of the projects sheet shows details for the Princess Royal University Hospital (Bromley), and row 426 for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Woolwich). Each row contains information on a project's capital value, annual unitary charge payments, financial close date, contract duration and the private sector counterparty companies and their sub-contractors.
	The data show that the annual unitary charge for financial year 2011-12 for the Princess Royal University Hospital was £37.2 million and that for Queen Elizabeth Hospital was £26.6 million. The total estimated payments over the 30 year operational lifetime of each contract are respectively £1.5 billion and £1.0 billion (the payments are subject to meeting agreed performance and quality standards and include an annual uprate assumption for inflation of 2.5%).
	The annual unitary charges for these two schemes—as for many others—include not just the financing costs for initial construction but also the costs of building maintenance and many non-clinical support services (cleaning, catering, portering etc) provided over the lifetime of the contract. The hon. Member may wish to contact South London Healthcare NHS Trust in regard to the detailed terms and conditions of these two contracts.

Internet

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department spent on (a) strategy and planning, (b) design and build, (c) hosting and infrastructure, (d) content provision and (e) testing and evaluation for its websites in each of the last two years; and how much has been allocated for each such category of expenditure in 2012-13.

Daniel Poulter: The Department has spent the following:
	
		
			 2010-11 £ 
			 Managed service  
			 (c) hosting and infrastructure 727,744 
			   
			 Projects  
			 (a) strategy and planning (b) design and build (d) content provision (e) testing and evaluation 429,940 
		
	
	
		
			 2011-12 £ 
			 Managed service  
			 (c) hosting and infrastructure 928,125 
			   
			 Projects  
			 (a) strategy and planning (b) design and build (d) content provision (e) testing and evaluation 398,950 
		
	
	
		
			 2012-13 estimated expenditure £ 
			 Managed service  
			 (c) hosting and infrastructure 976,600 
			   
			 Projects and contract exit  
			 (a) strategy and planning (b) design and build (d) content provision (e) testing and evaluation (1)500,000 
			 (1) Includes closedown, decommissioning and exit costs 
		
	
	It is not possible to break down the costs of projects into the four elements of strategy and planning, design and build, content provision and testing and evaluation.

Muscular Dystrophy

Graham Stringer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many unplanned emergency admissions of people with (a) muscular dystrophy and (b) other neuromuscular diseases there were to hospitals in (i) Greater Manchester, (ii) the North West and (iii) England in the latest period for which figures are available.

Norman Lamb: The information requested for muscular dystrophy is shown in the following table. Other neuromuscular conditions cannot be identified separately within the source data.
	
		
			 Count of emergency finished admission episodes (FAEs)(1) with a primary diagnosis of muscular dystrophy(2) for (i) selected primary care trusts (PCTs) of main provider located in Greater Manchester(3), (ii) North West Strategic Health Authority (SHA) of main provider(3), and (iii) England for the year 2011-12 
			 Activity in English national health services hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector 
			  Greater Manchester North West England 
			 2011-12 * 16 81 
			 (1) An emergency finished admission episode (FAE) is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one health care provider where the method of admission was emergency (between 21 and 28). FAEs are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. (2) The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and seven prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital. ICD-l0 Code used: G71.0 — Muscular dystrophy. (3) This indicates the PCT or SHA area within which the organisation providing treatment was located. Greater Manchester is defined as the following PCTs of main provider: 5HG—Ashton, Leigh And Wigan PCT 5HQ—Bolton PCT 5JX—Bury PCT 5NQ—Heywood, Middleton And Rochdale PCT 5NT—Manchester PCT 5J5—Oldham PCT 5F5—Salford PCT 5F7—Stockport PCT 5LH—Tameside And Glossop PCT 5NR—Trafford PCT. Data QualityHospital Episode Statistics (HES) are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and PCTs in England and from some independent sector organisations for activity commissioned by the English NHS. Health and Social Care Information Centre liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain. Small numbersTo protect patient confidentiality, figures between 1 and 5 have been replaced with “*” (an asterisk). Where it was still possible to identify figures from the total, additional figures have been replaced with “*”. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Nurses: North-East

Tom Blenkinsop: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what estimate he has made of the (a) current and (b) future supply of and demand for urgent care trained nurses within Teesside, East Cleveland and North Yorkshire;
	(2)  if he will meet the hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland to discuss urgent care provision in East Cleveland.

Daniel Poulter: Information on numbers of urgent care trained nurses is not centrally held.
	Changes to the size and shape of the work force are the responsibility of local employers and are not determined centrally. Local health care organisations, with their knowledge of the patients that they serve, are best placed to plan and deliver a work force appropriate to the needs of their patients, based on clinical need and sound evidence.
	I would however be happy to meet the hon. Member to discuss urgent care provision in East Cleveland.

Patients: Death

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish the most recent standardised mortality ratio for each NHS hospital trust.

Daniel Poulter: The standardised hospital-level mortality indicator is published on the NHS Choices website:
	www.nhs.uk

Primary Care Trusts

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 29 November 2012, Official Report, column 504W, on health services, what the 18 unallocated functions are.

Anna Soubry: Since my answer of 29 November, Official Report, column 504W, on health services, the number of unallocated functions has reduced from 18 to five. These are listed in the following table.
	These are limited to localised primary care trust (PCT) functions and do not affect the relevant PCT's individual operational or statutory duties. As these are local issues raised in individual PCTs, and are not replicated around the country, the work to resolve the future hosting of these functions is being taken forward locally.
	
		
			 PCT function description PCT 
			 Fountains Hall Medical Practice Bradford and Airedale PCT 
			 Joint Interface Team Shropshire County PCT 
			 Other hosted contracts Bradford and Airedale PCT 
			 South East Coast Health Policy Support Unit Sussex PCT Cluster 
			 Thames Valley Research Management and Governance Oxfordshire PCT

Social Services: Birmingham

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department has spent on social care costs in Birmingham in each of the last five years; and what it plans to spend in each of the next three financial years.

Norman Lamb: Social care is a local service, delivered by local authorities for their local populations. Local spending on social care is therefore not set by the Department of Health, but determined by councils, according to their local priorities and pressures. The best source of information on spending decisions in Birmingham is the council itself.
	The Department for Communities and Local Government also publishes expenditure data for local authorities, which are available online at gov.uk. The latest publication is “Local authority revenue expenditure and financing England: 2011 to 2012 individual local authority data”.

Social Services: Cambridgeshire

Julian Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the adequacy of supply of care staff in Cambridgeshire.

Norman Lamb: It is the responsibility of care commissioners, such as local authorities working with social care employers, to ensure the adequacy of supply of the social care work force who provide care for the local population in Cambridgeshire.
	My hon. Friend may wish to approach Cambridgeshire county council for information on the supply of care staff in Cambridgeshire.

Social Services: Finance

Andrew Bingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress he has made on implementing the recommendations of the Dilnot Commission; and if he will make a statement.

Norman Lamb: The Government published a progress report on funding reform in July 2012. The progress report set out that the Government agrees the principles of the Commission's model—financial protection through capped costs and an extended means test—would be the right basis for any new funding model. It is our intention to base a new funding model on them if a way to pay for it can be found. There are important questions that need to be addressed about how those principles could be applied to any reformed system and we are engaging with stakeholders to explore the issues.
	We are taking definitive steps now to pursue several important recommendations made by the Dilnot Commission. This includes the introduction of universal deferred payments for residential care from April 2015 so that nobody will have to sell their home in their lifetime to pay for care. In addition, we will introduce for the first time a national eligibility threshold for adult care and support in England from April 2015 so that people have consistent access across the country. We have also committed to providing a clear, universal and authoritative source of national information about the health and care and support system to improve the information available to support people who have care needs.
	A copy of the “Caring for our future: progress report on funding reform” published in July 2012 has already been placed in the Library.

South London Healthcare NHS Trust

Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish the (a) methodology and (b) evidential basis on which the Special Administrator for South London Healthcare NHS Trust has concluded that it is possible to transfer 30% of the work of a full accident and emergency department to community services.

Anna Soubry: This is a matter for the Trust Special Administrator appointed to South London Healthcare NHS Trust. He is expected to work independently of the Government in developing and consulting on a draft report, and will in due course make final recommendations to the Secretary of State about securing a sustainable future for services provided by the trust. The draft report is available at:
	www.tsa.nhs.uk
	and is out for public consultation until 13 December.

Surveys

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library a copy of the results of his Department's most recent staff survey; which organisation carried out that survey; and what the cost of the survey was.

Daniel Poulter: A copy of the results of the October 2012 Department's people survey will be placed in the Library in the new year. The results will similarly be published publicly on the Department's website at that time:
	www.dh.gov.uk
	The survey was carried out by ORC International Ltd as part of the civil service people survey, which is carried out across a number of civil service organisations, co-ordinated by the Cabinet Office.
	The cost of the survey will be approximately £20,000 and this covers costs for both the Department and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. This is around 50% lower than the cost of the survey in 2009-10 (£40,390).

Taxis

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department spent on taxi fares in each of the last two years.

Daniel Poulter: The Department spent the following amounts on taxi fares during the last two full financial years:
	2010-11: £154,934
	2011-12: £139,791.
	These figures include expenditure from both Administration and Programme budgets. During the same period NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH) spent the following:
	2010-11: £87,675.73
	2011-12: £68,372.95.
	NHS CFH Travel and Subsistence policy makes it clear that the use of taxis is subject to there being a health and safety reason or where either public transport is not available or the number of staff travelling together make this the best value for money method of travel.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Developing Countries: Agriculture

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps she is taking to ensure that development aid supports smallholder farmers in developing countries.

Lynne Featherstone: DFID provides support for smallholder farmers in many countries through a wide range of implementing partners. In at least 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, DFID is investing in public goods, such as infrastructure and research, which benefit smallholders. Through other country programmes DFID is increasing the market opportunities for smallholders to buy inputs, such as fertiliser, and to sell their produce. Examples of our direct support for smallholders include:
	supporting land tenure in Rwanda which will provide 4 million poor men and women with title to the land they farm;
	supporting a Farm Input Subsidy Programme in Malawi to help 1.5 million poor farmers increase their agricultural productivity.
	DFID also invests in key multilateral organisations which provide support for smallholder agriculture. For example:
	funding the International Fund for Agricultural Development to help smallholders in about 40 countries to adapt to climate change;
	supporting the international agricultural research organisation, CGIAR, to develop drought-tolerant maize, which benefits more than 2 million smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa.

Rwanda

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development which projects funded by her Department in Rwanda are to be cut in 2013.

Justine Greening: As my written ministerial statement of 30 November 2012, Official Report, column 38WS, explained, I have decided not to release the £21 million general budget support payment to Rwanda, due to be paid in December 2012. I have instructed my officials to provide advice on options for how the UK can continue to help the poorest in Rwanda.

Sudan and South Sudan

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent discussions she has had on the situation in Sudan and South Sudan; and if she will make a statement.

Lynne Featherstone: The UK remains strongly committed to supporting peace, development and good governance in both Sudan and South Sudan. We continue to press both countries to implement the agreements signed in Addis Ababa on 27 September, and to resolve outstanding areas of disagreement in line with the African Union Peace and Security Council's communiqué of 24 October. We are also pressing the Government of Sudan to find peaceful solutions for the conflict in Darfur, and for the conflicts in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, where we are also delivering the same messages to the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North. During my recent visit to South Sudan, I discussed DFID's development and humanitarian programme with members of the Government of South Sudan, members of the National Legislative Assembly of South Sudan, representatives from South Sudanese civil society, and international partners including the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and the UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator. The Secretary of State for International Development has also met the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs to discuss the international response to the humanitarian situation in South Sudan and in Sudan. Ministers and officials will continue to make clear to both Sudan and South Sudan that long-term, peaceful relations are in their best interests.

EDUCATION

Academies: Finance

Stephen Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will place in the Library the value of Local Authority Central Services Equivalent Grant being paid to all converter academies that had converted prior to September 2011 for the year 2012-13; and if he will show the school's local authority and its LAESTAB number alongside the schools in each case.

David Laws: The Department is currently looking at the options for releasing academies' budget data, including the LACSEG amount, and we expect that this will be published shortly. Once it is published, we will place a copy in the Library.
	The Department published academies' budget data on 9 November 2012. These show the amount of LACSEG funding given to academies for the 2012/13 academic year. In addition to publishing this information on the Department's website a copy has also been placed in the House Library.

Children in Care

Andrew Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Education 
	(1)  how many young people who entered care at each age and who left care at 16 or older and who did not return to their birth parents had been taken into care because of (a) abuse or neglect, (b) child's disability, (c) parents' illness or disability, (d) family in acute stress, (e) family dysfunction, (f) socially unacceptable behaviour, (g) low income, (h) absent parenting and (i) any other reason in the most recent year for which figures are available;
	(2)  how many live placements each young person had who was aged (a) 11, (b) 12, (c) 13, (d) 14, (e) 15 and (f) 16 when starting their last period of care and who left care at 16 or older and did not return to his or her birth parent in the last year for which figures are available;
	(3)  how many young people taken into care at age 13 or older and who left care at the age of (a) 16, (b) 17 and (c) 18 did not return to their birth parents in each of the last 10 years

Edward Timpson: The number of young people who entered care at each age and who left care at 16 or older, and who did not return to their birth parents, and had been taken into care because of (a) abuse or neglect, (b) child's disability, (c) parents' illness or disability, (d) family in acute stress, (e) family dysfunction, (f) socially unacceptable behaviour, (g) low income, (h) absent parenting and (i) any other reason for the year ending 31 March 2012 is shown in Table 1.
	The number of placements each young person had who was aged (a) 11, (b) 12, (c) 13, (d) 14, (e) 15 and (f) 16 when starting their last period of care and who left care at 16 or older and did not return to his or her birth parents, for the year ending 31 March 2012 is shown in Table 2.
	To produce information on the number of young people who were taken into care at age 13 or older and who left care at the age of (a) 16, (b) 17 and (c) 18, and who did not return to their birth parents, for each of the last 10 years can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
	Information on the number of children who ceased to be looked after aged 16 and over is provided in table D1 of the Statistical First Release ‘Children Looked After by Local Authorities in England (including adoption and care leavers)—year ending 31 March 2012' which can be found on the Department's website via the following link:
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00213762/children-looked-after-las-england
	
		
			 Table 1: Children aged 16 and over who ceased to be looked after during the year ending 31 March 2012, who did not return home to live with parents or relatives, by age at the start of their last period of care, and category of need(1, 2, 3, 4,5). Year ending: 31 March 2012. Coverage: England 
			 Number 
			   Category of need on entering care 
			  All children aged 16 and over Abuse or neglect Child's disability Parents illness or disability Family in acute stress Family dysfunction Socially unacceptable behaviour Low income Absent parenting 
			 All children 2,980 2,160 60 150 180 300 50 10 80 
			           
			 Age at start of final period of care          
			 Under 1 70 50 10 10 x 10 0 0 0 
			 1 70 60 x 10 10 10 0 0 0 
			 2 130 110 10 10 x 10 0 x x 
			 3 140 110 x 10 10 10 0 x 10 
			 4 190 160 0 10 10 20 x 0 x 
			 5 220 160 x 20 10 20 x x x 
			 6 240 180 x 10 10 20 0 x 10 
			 7 260 200 10 10 10 20 x 0 10 
			 8 290 220 x 20 20 30 x 0 10 
			 9 280 200 10 10 10 30 10 x 10 
			 10 260 190 10 10 20 30 10 x 10 
			 11 220 150 10 10 30 30 x x 10 
			 12 160 100 x 10 10 20 10 0 10 
			 13 170 110 x 10 10 30 10 0 x 
			 14 140 80 x x 10 20 10 0 10 
			 15 110 70 10 0 10 20 10 0 x 
			 16 30 20 x 0 x x x 0 x 
			 17 x x 0 0 0 0 0 0 x 
		
	
	
		
			 (1) Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. (2) Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short-term placements. (3) Figures only include children who were taken into care, i.e. children who started to be looked after under a care order, police protection, emergency protection order or child assessment order. (4) The most applicable category of the eight “Need Codes” at the time the child started to be looked after rather than necessarily the entire reason they were looked after. (5) Only the last occasion on which a child ceased to be looked after in the year has been counted. Source: SSDA 903 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 2: Children aged 16 and over who ceased to be looked after during the year ending 31 March 2012 who did not return home to live with parents or relatives, by age at the start of their last period of care, and number of placements in their final period of care(1, 2, 3, 4). Year ending: 31 March 2012. Coverage: England 
			 Number 
			   Number of placements in final period of care 
			  All children aged 16 and over 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 or more 
			 All children 2,980 50 170 390 400 310 290 230 200 170 790 
			             
			 Age at start of final period of care            
			 Under 1 70 0 10 10 10 x x 10 x x 30 
			 1 70 0 x 10 x 10 10 10 10 10 30 
			 2 130 x 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 50 
			 3 140 x 10 20 10 10 20 10 10 x 40 
			 4 190 x 10 40 10 20 20 10 10 10 60 
			 5 220 10 10 30 40 20 20 10 10 20 60 
			 6 240 x 10 40 30 20 20 20 30 10 60 
			 7 260 0 20 40 30 30 30 20 10 20 70 
			 8 290 x 10 40 40 30 30 20 20 20 80 
			 9 280 x 10 30 40 30 30 20 20 20 90 
			 10 260 x x 20 50 40 20 20 20 20 60 
			 11 220 0 20 20 40 20 20 20 10 10 60 
			 12 160 x 10 20 20 20 20 20 10 10 40 
			 13 170 0 10 30 30 20 20 10 10 10 40 
			 14 140 x 10 20 30 10 10 10 10 10 30 
			 15 110 10 10 30 20 10 10 10 10 x 10 
			 16 30 10 10 10 x x x 0 0 0 x 
			 17 x x x 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 
			 x = Figures not shown in order to protect confidentiality. See Technical Notes for information on data suppression. (1) Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. (2) Figures exclude children looked after under an agreed series of short-term placements. (3) Figures only include children who were taken into care, ie children who started to be looked after under a care order, police protection, emergency protection order or child assessment order. (4) Only the last occasion on which a child ceased to be looked after in the year has been counted. Source: SSDA 903

Child: Protection

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education with reference to his Department's evaluation report, The impact of more flexible assessment practices in response to the Munro Review of Child Protection: Emerging findings from the trials, published in July 2012, for what reason the report did not seek views from children, young people and their families in the trial authorities; and if the views of such people will be sought before revised statutory guidance is published.

Edward Timpson: holding answer 4 December 2012
	The views expressed by children and young people, their families and their advocates have been obtained and taken into account when informing the Government's proposed changes to the assessment process for children in need.
	The evaluation report ‘The impact of more flexible assessment practices in response to the Munro Review of Child Protection: Emerging findings from the trials’, (July 2012) is an independent report by the Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre. The report was commissioned by the Department for Education and forms one part of the evidence which will be used to inform the final revisions to statutory guidance. Consideration was given by the Department as to whether the views of children should be obtained as part of the formal consultation process. This was discussed with the Office of the Children's Commissioner and the Office of the Children's Rights Director (OCRD) and it was agreed that this was not necessary as there was already considerable information before the Department from children about their experiences of the assessment process and that the focus should be on reflecting such views in the revised statutory guidance.
	Children's views were obtained as part of the Munro review which was an independent, wide-ranging review by Professor Eileen Munro which looked closely at the assessment of children in need. Professor Munro held three events with children and young people during her year long review and called specifically for directors of children's services in England to obtain the views of children and young people on her proposals for changing the assessment process.
	The final report of Professor Munro's review was published in May 2011. In May 2012, Professor Munro asked the Office of the Children's Rights Director (OCRD) to work with some children in the trial authorities to gather their views to inform her report on the progress on the recommendations from her review. The work undertaken by the OCRD led to a report entitled ‘Children's experiences of child protection procedures’ (May 2012). Although only a small number of children took part in this work by the OCRD, the evidence from this report will also inform the proposed revisions to the statutory guidance.
	The Government ran a 12-week consultation over the summer on the proposed changes and received detailed responses from a number of organisations who reflect the views of children, young people and their families. These views along with all the evidence from the Munro review and from the trial authorities are being considered before final guidance is issued.

Families

Andrew Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to reduce the incidence of family breakdown.

Edward Timpson: Research shows that relationship breakdown affects the health and wellbeing of the whole family, and that children whose parents split up are more likely to experience breakdown in their own adult relationships. That is why the Government have committed £30 million to funding relationship support programmes between 2011 and 2015, and the Department for Education has recently run a procurement exercise for the delivery of new services from 2013 to 2015. A number of expert providers in the voluntary and community sector will be funded to deliver a range of services, including preventative support targeted at couples at risk of family breakdown; activities to encourage the take up of relationship support; and counselling for couples who may be experiencing difficulties.
	The Department funds a number of family information services, which include helpline and online information, providing advice and guidance on relationships. These services are delivered by expert providers including Relate as well as through online support communities such as Netmums, and will continue to be funded up until 2015.
	The Government will also be providing greater support to separating and separated parents through a web service designed to help parents collaborate and make their own arrangements for child maintenance and contact. DWP also recently launched an “Innovation Fund” worth £14 million that will test out the most effective means of helping separating and separated parents work together in the best interests of their children.

Pupils: Disadvantaged

Pauline Latham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment he has made of the use of the pupil premium in Mid Derbyshire.

David Laws: The Government believe that head teachers and school leaders should decide how to use the Pupil Premium, in order to support pupils entitled to the premium and close the gaps in performance between pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and other pupils. This means that we also expect schools to take the lead responsibility in assessing and accounting for their use of the premium. Schools are accountable to parents and to their communities, and we have therefore taken steps to improve the local information available about the attainment of disadvantaged pupils. First, their educational attainment in each school is now published through the performance tables. In addition, schools receiving the Pupil Premium are required to publish an annual statement online which includes: the school's Pupil Premium funding for the current academic year; their plans for spending the premium; the funding allocation for the previous academic year and details of how it was spent; and the effect of this expenditure on the educational attainment of the school's premium pupils.
	Nationally, the Government have made a significant funding investment in disadvantaged children through the Pupil Premium, which is currently £1.25 billion and will rise to £1.875 billion in 2013-14. We have therefore both commissioned an external evaluation of the premium's first year, and asked Ofsted to study how effectively schools are using their premium funding to close the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.
	Ofsted published their interim study findings on 20 September 2012, and will publish the results of the full study in spring 2013. In addition to this, they have an increased focus on the performance of pupils who attract the premium, and on how it is used to remove barriers to learning for premium pupils. Since September 2012, as part of routine school inspection, Ofsted have been holding school leaders to account for how schools have spent their Pupil Premium and what difference this is making to the learning and progress of the pupils concerned. Their judgments on schools' leadership will consider the use of both the premium and other resources to overcome barriers to achievement for their pupils.
	In his annual report published in November, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector has committed Ofsted to paying particular attention to attainment gaps affecting disadvantaged pupils in schools where they form a minority of less than 20% of all pupils.

Special Educational Needs

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment he has made of the findings of the recent Pathfinder Interim Evaluation Report that no pathfinder local authority had developed their local offer by June 2012.

Edward Timpson: There was no requirement for pathfinder local authorities to publish their local offer by June 2012. The interim evaluation report on the pathfinder programme, published in October 2012, showed good overall progress in testing the Government's special educational needs reforms, with pathfinder areas making progress in developing their local offer.

Written Questions: Government Responses

Stephen Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Education when he plans to answer the question tabled by the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby, on 12 October 2012, on the Local Authority Central Services Equivalent Grant.

David Laws: A response to the hon. Member has been issued today.

Written Questions: Government Responses

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education 
	(1)  when he plans to provide a substantive reply to question 125281;
	(2)  when he plans to provide a substantive reply to question 125280;
	(3)  when he plans to provide a substantive reply to question 124326;
	(4)  when he plans to provide a substantive reply to question 124327.

Edward Timpson: Responses were issued to the hon. Member's questions as follows:
	PQ 125281—5 December 2012, Official Report, column 778W
	PQ 125280—5 December 2012, Official Report, column 775W
	PQ 124326—5 December 2012, Official Report, column 779W
	PQ 124327—has been responded to today.

Youth Services

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education which youth projects (a) he and (b) each Minister in his Department has visited since May 2010.

Edward Timpson: Since May 2010, the Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), and his ministerial team have visited a wide range of settings and establishments working with and for young people.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Israel

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his policy to seek the prosecution of Israeli political and military leaders at the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

Alistair Burt: Israel is not a state party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and so the prosecutor of the ICC does not have jurisdiction over either Israeli nationals or the situations in either Israel or the occupied Palestinian Territories. We judge that pursuing ICC jurisdiction over the Occupied Territories at this stage could make a return to negotiations impossible. This is extremely important given that we see 2013 as a crucial year for the middle east peace process.

Sri Lanka

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on the security of the Catholic Church in the north of Sri Lanka.

Alistair Burt: Our high commission monitors developments carefully on all human rights concerns in Sri Lanka, and keeps in contact with religious leaders including from the Catholic Church (our high commissioner met the Bishop of Mannar during a visit there in July). We have received reports relating to the security of Catholic Church officials in the north of Sri Lanka, and receive information on concerns relating to freedom of religion from non-governmental organisations such as Christian Solidarity Worldwide. We are aware of complaints of onerous administrative burdens placed on certain religions and religious education and have also received reports of discrimination against certain religious groups. We will continue to urge the Sri Lankan Government to make progress on all human rights issues.

Sudan

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions (a) he and (b) his ministerial colleagues have had with other European countries about allegations of the abuse and torture of asylum seekers returning to Sudan; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Simmonds: We are aware of recent reports gathered by Waging Peace which allege that Sudanese citizens, including some failed asylum seekers, have been ill-treated upon their return to Sudan from European countries. We have frequently made clear, publicly and in private discussions with the Sudanese authorities, our concerns over the ill-treatment of detainees in Sudan, such as those detained in public protests in June, and we continue to encourage the Government in Sudan to put in place a political process of constitutional reform that will address the needs and views of all its people, including full respect for human rights. We work closely in these areas with our European partners.

Sudan

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with the Sudanese government on allegations of the use of torture on returning asylum seekers removed from the UK; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Simmonds: We are aware of recent reports gathered by Waging Peace which allege that Sudanese citizens, including some failed asylum seekers, have been ill-treated upon their return to Sudan from European countries. We have frequently made clear, publicly and in private discussions with the Sudanese authorities, our concerns over the ill-treatment of detainees in Sudan, such as those detained in public protests in June, and we continue to encourage the Government in Sudan to put in place a political process of constitutional reform that will address the needs and views of all its people, including full respect for human rights. We work closely in these areas with our European partners.

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Energy

Tom Clarke: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the answer of 19 November 2012, Official Report, column 260W, on energy, if he will make it his policy to require Ofgem to publish the market shares of the six major energy companies in respect of (a) gas and (b) electricity in each of the last 10 years.

John Hayes: Annual figures for domestic market share are considered commercially sensitive and are likely to be subject to the general restrictions on disclosure under section 105 of the Utilities Act 2000. Ofgem has nevertheless collected and published data on market shares, with the consent of the companies concerned, in various market reports—for example Retail Market Review: Findings and Initial Proposals published in March 2011—covering the period 2002 to 2012, as provided in the answer given to you on 19 November 2012, Official Report, column 260W.

Energy: Scotland

John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of how much energy companies invested in infrastructure in Scotland in each year since 2007.

John Hayes: The Department does not collect data on how much energy companies invest in infrastructure in any of the countries of the United Kingdom. For the UK, data on investment by the energy industries and the energy sectors, as provided by the Office for National Statistics, are available in my Department's statistical publication ‘UK Energy Sector Indicators’ available at:
	http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/statistics/publications/indicators/indicators.aspx

Renewables Obligation

Graham Stringer: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change for what reason his Department's impact assessment on the Renewables Obligation Transition published on 29 November 2012 contained no calculations.

John Hayes: The impact assessment contained in the Electricity Market Reform (EMR) package covering the Renewables Obligation (RO) Transition was purely qualitative in nature at this stage of policy development. It is the intention of the Department to consult on the specifics of RO Transition during 2013 and a quantification of the proposed policy will be carried out then. To estimate the impacts, DECC will continue to seek and compile further evidence to inform the response to any RO Transition consultation.

CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT

Artworks: Loans

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make it her policy to increase the eligibility of participants in the Own Art scheme to include independent artists who exclusively sell their own work.

Edward Vaizey: The Own Art scheme is run independently from Government by Arts Council England. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has no intention to review the Arts Council's operation of this scheme.

BBC Trust

Fabian Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions she has had with the BBC Trust on severance packages given to (a) departing directors and (b) George Entwistle.

Edward Vaizey: The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Maria Miller), has had a number of discussions with the Chairman of the BBC Trust over recent weeks, some of which have included updates from the Chairman on developments following the resignation of the Director-General. However decisions made on severance packages given to departing directors, and the recruitment and appointment of the Director-General and other senior executives are entirely matters for the BBC Trust.

Broadband

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when her Department submitted the correct paperwork to the European Commission in relation to state aid for superfast broadband.

Edward Vaizey: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) submitted its formal notification for state aid approval for its superfast broadband scheme on 5 January 2012. Having reviewed the notification, the Commission raised 31 questions relating to the detailed operation of the scheme on 29 February. DCMS worked closely with Commission officials over the course of the following months to address the concerns that were raised in these questions, to amend the scheme where appropriate and to negotiate on specific details. The notification was approved by the Commission on 20 November.

Broadband Delivery UK

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the administration budget of Broadband Delivery UK was in each year since May 2010.

Edward Vaizey: holding answer 30 November 2012
	The administration budget for Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) in 2010-11, was £1 million, and in 2011-12, it was £5.85 million, reflecting its increased workload in delivering the Government's ambitious broadband plans and the ramping-up of its work. BDUK no longer has a separate administration budget from the rest of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press Inquiry

Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will assess the impartiality of Sir David Bell in respect of his role in the Leveson Inquiry.

Maria Miller: The panel of assessors were appointed under the Inquiries Act 2005. Members of the panel made declarations of interest before their appointment, which are available on the Leveson Inquiry website:
	http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/people/assessors/

Football: Racial Discrimination

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions she has had with representatives of football on the use of racist chanting and abuse in that sport.

Hugh Robertson: As a result of the Downing street summit in February, the Government have asked the football authorities to publish a clear plan of action on what can be done to tackle racism in the game. We continue to meet with the authorities to check progress with this.
	I have also written in the strongest terms to UEFA following the scenes at the England U21 match in Serbia. It is now in their hands and we await their formal judgment.

Football: Sportsgrounds

Simon Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will bring forward proposals to amend the Football Spectators Act 1989 to introduce on a trial basis, limited standing areas at grounds of clubs in the Premier League and Championship who agree to participate in such trials.

Hugh Robertson: The Government believe that the long standing policy, which requires that stadia of football clubs in the top two divisions be all-seater, remains the best means to ensure the safety and security of spectators at football grounds in England and Wales. The football authorities, police and those responsible for safety all continue to support the current policy and a compelling case has not been made to change this.

Olympic Games 2012: G4S

Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when she plans to meet the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to discuss the performance of G4S in delivering its obligations in relation to the London 2012 Olympics.

Hugh Robertson: Officials are in close touch with the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) about progress in concluding their contractual negotiations with G4S, and keep Ministers regularly updated.

Telephone Services: Unsolicited Goods and Services

David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps her Department is taking to stop cold telephone calls from overseas.

Edward Vaizey: Cold telephone calls from overseas foreign companies fall outside the jurisdiction of the UK. However, callers from within the UK, or those based overseas calling on behalf of UK companies, are legally required not to call numbers registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), which is a free service and is provided under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). UK consumers are also protected if they have previously notified the caller that they do not wish to receive such calls. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) enforces the TPS and considers complaints about breaches. The ICO can issue a fine of up to £500,000 for the most serious breaches of the PECR.
	The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is pressing for more action in this area, with the ICO, Ofcom and TPS working together to make improvements. The ICO has increased the resources devoted to enforcement of PECR and, on 28 November 2012, served penalties totalling £440,000 on two illegal marketers responsible for distributing millions of spam texts. The ICO has also published on its website a list of the most complained about companies that make calls to TPS registered consumers, if the companies fail to remedy their actions, they could face further enforcement action. The ICO is currently considering issuing penalties to three other companies for breaching the PECR.
	In addition, Ofcom has improved the information available to consumers online at:
	http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/telecoms/privacy
	which provides clearer advice on how to avoid nuisance calls, texts and e-mails. A new Consumer Guide signposts the correct place to make a complaint:
	http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2012/10/tackling-nuisance-calls-and-messages

William Shakespeare

Geoffrey Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether she has any plans to mark the occasion of the 400 year anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare in 2016.

Edward Vaizey: DCMS does not yet have any specific plans to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, but 2016 provides an opportunity for many organisations, independent of Government, to organise their own celebrations if they wish to.

TRANSPORT

Hartlepool-Newcastle Railway Line

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what information his Department holds on the punctuality rate for the Northern Rail service from (a) Hartlepool to Newcastle and (b) Newcastle to Hartlepool in each of the last five years.

Norman Baker: The Department for Transport does not hold this level of information; however, the following table shows Northern Rail's PPM and MAA data over the last five years. The ORR Performance website which breaks down Northern Rail routes into categories can be found at the following page:
	http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/report/html/ca69234d-b613-4ec8-a3ba-d3ca77f883cf
	
		
			 Northern Rail five-year annual PPM 
			  PPM MAA (%) 
			 2008-09 89.6 
			 2009-10 91.2 
			 2010-11 91.1 
			 2011-12 90.8 
			 2012-13 91.7

M1: Accidents

Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make an assessment of the time taken to resolve the closure of the M1 between junctions 5 and 4 southbound on 3 December 2012; and if he will make a statement.

Stephen Hammond: The incident on the M1 between junctions 5 and 4 on 3 December 2012 was a police led incident as it involved fatalities and potential criminal behaviour. I have asked for a full debrief to take place into the incident. This will include the Highways Agency, the police and the other emergency services involved. The investigation will assess all the aspects of the incident including the time taken to re-open the carriageway.

Motorcycles: Driving Tests

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many people have taken the Direct Access motorbike test in each of the last five years.

Stephen Hammond: The Direct Access Scheme (DAS) is a training route which allows riders of 21 years or over to train under the supervision of a certified instructor before taking the category A practical motorcycle test. The Driving Standards Agency does not collect data on the route people follow when taking a category A test, although it is likely that the majority of people do follow the Direct Access route.
	The number of people who have taken a category A practical motorcycle test in each of the last five financial years and in the current year to 31 October 2012 are:
	
		
			  Number of people that have taken a category A practical motorcycle test 
			 2007-08 50,920 
			 2008-09 59,144 
			 2009-10 28,019 
			 2010-11 28,694 
			 2011-12 32,565 
			 1 April 2012 to 31 October 2012 23,664

Northern Rail

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport 
	(1)  whether class (a) 317 and (b) 319 units will be introduced on the Northern Rail franchise; and if so, by what date;
	(2)  what classes of rolling stock will be introduced on the Northern Rail franchise in the next five years.

Simon Burns: The Northern Rail franchise is due to end in April 2014, and the franchisee is not understood to be planning to introduce more rolling stock into service before that date. No decisions have been taken on rolling stock after April 2014, but options could include class 317 and 319 electric trains subject to wider rolling stock discussions with our industry partners.

Official Cars

Christopher Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 22 November 2012, Official Report, columns 538-40W, on official cars, whether Ministers are allocated specific cars from the Government Car Service.

Stephen Hammond: With the introduction of a departmental pool car service on 1 April 2012, individual Ministers are no longer allocated specific cars from the Government Car Service.

Roads: Accidents

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many accidents have involved both a vehicle and wildlife in each of the last five years.

Stephen Hammond: The Department only collects information relating to personal injury road accidents, and therefore does not include damage-only accidents in its statistics.
	The number of accidents where animals (including wildlife, livestock and pets but excluding ridden horses) were a hazard in the carriageway for the last five years are given in following table:
	
		
			 Number of reported personal injury road accidents where an animal was carriageway hazard, GB: 2007-11 
			 Number of accidents 
			  Fatal Serious Slight Total 
			 2007 7 123 870 1,000 
			 2008 7 127 735 869 
			 2009 6 128 700 834 
			 2010 1 126 737 864 
			 2011 8 126 717 851 
		
	
	It is not possible to say whether the animal was struck by a vehicle in the accident or caused the accident.

Roads: Accidents

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many motor accidents there have been involving (a) coaches, (b) rickshaws and (c) quad bikes in each of the last five years.

Stephen Hammond: The Department is unable to identify rickshaws and quad bikes separately as there are no specific codes for these vehicle types in our accident data. They are included in the “other vehicle” category which also includes vehicles such as motor caravans, fire engines, ambulances and mobile cranes among others.
	The number of reported personal injury road accidents involving buses/coaches for the last five years is given in table RAS20001, published in annual report entitled “Reported road casualties in Great Britain: annual report 2011”. The table is available at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/10136/ras20001.xls
	A copy of the report is also deposited in the Library of the House.

Rolling Stock

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he can take under franchising agreements to ensure that train companies provide modern rolling stock for their services.

Simon Burns: Rolling stock decisions are a matter for train operators and this includes the type of rolling stock they operate and whether it is refurbished or new.

Thameslink Railway Line

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the (a) numbers of carriages and (b) category of rolling stock are that will cascade to other franchises following completion of the Thameslink rolling stock contract; and when this cascade will be complete.

Simon Burns: It is estimated that up to 800 electric multiple unit (EMU) vehicles, mostly in four car sets, will have been released by the operator of the newly-combined Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise by the time the Thameslink rolling stock contract has been fully delivered in 2018.

JUSTICE

Community Orders

Elfyn Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will bring forward proposals to enable the courts to seize the assets of offenders who are given community orders.

Jeremy Wright: The Government sought views in their “Punishment and Reform” consultation on whether to introduce a new sentencing power for courts to order the confiscation of assets from offenders given a community order. In the light of consultation responses, the Government have decided not to introduce such a power at this time.

Community Orders

Elfyn Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of individual community order requirements in reducing re-offending.

Jeremy Wright: The proven reoffending rate for adults subject to court orders(1) was 34% in the 12 months ending September 2010.
	The Ministry of Justice has also published research which examines the relative effectiveness of community order requirements at reducing reoffending, for offenders with similar characteristics.
	The study used propensity score matching to explore the impact of different community order requirements on the reoffending rate and frequency of reoffending within two years of the initial offence. The analysis used data from the Offender Assessment System, probation and reoffending records and administrative data on employment and benefit receipt.
	The research is published on the MOJ website and can be located on the following webpage:
	http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/publications/research-and-analysis/moj-research/niesr-report.pdf
	(1) Including pre-Criminal Justice Act 2003 community sentences, new community orders and suspended sentence orders.

Court Orders: Alcoholic Drinks

Elfyn Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what penalties he proposes for offenders who breach compulsory sobriety orders.

Jeremy Wright: An alcohol abstinence and monitoring requirement is a new requirement which will be available to the court when making a community order or a suspended sentence order. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 introduces this requirement.
	The penalties available to the courts for breach of an alcohol abstinence requirement will be the same as for breaches of other requirements of community orders or suspended sentence orders.
	The alcohol abstinence requirement is not yet in force and we intend, and are legally required by the 2012 Act, to pilot it in advance of any national roll out.

Court Orders: Alcoholic Drinks

Elfyn Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether he plans to bring forward proposals to introduce compulsory sobriety orders for convicted offenders in cases where criminality is linked to excess alcohol.

Jeremy Wright: The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 introduces an alcohol abstinence and monitoring requirement which will be available to the court when making a community order or suspended sentence order.
	The alcohol abstinence requirement is not yet in force and we intend, and are legally required by the 2012 Act, to pilot it in advance of any national roll out.

Knives: East of England

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how many and what proportion of people convicted of encouraging violent behaviour involving the use of a knife under the Knives Act 1997 received a (a) fine and (b) custodial sentence of (i) less than six months, (ii) six to 12 months, (iii) 12 to 18 months and (iv) 18 to 24 months in (A) Suffolk, (B) Bedfordshire, (C) Cambridgeshire, (D) Essex, (E) Hertfordshire and (F) Norfolk in each of the last three years;
	(2)  how many people were found guilty of offences related to the illegal sale and marketing of knives in (a) Suffolk, (b) Bedfordshire, (c) Cambridgeshire, (d) Essex, (e) Hertfordshire and (f) Norfolk in each of the last three years.

Jeremy Wright: Information held centrally by the Ministry of Justice on defendants proceeded against, found guilty and sentenced for criminal offences shows there were no convictions for encouraging violent behaviour involving the use of a knife under the Knives Act 1997, in the requested police force areas, during the period 2009 to 2011 (the latest available).
	The number of offenders found guilty and sentenced at all courts for offences related to the illegal sale and marketing of knives, under section 141A (1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (which prohibits sales of knives to those under 18), in the requested police force areas, for the years 2009 to 2011 (latest available), can be viewed in the following table.
	
		
			 Number of persons found guilty and sentenced at all courts, for offences relating to the illegal sale and marketing of knives(1), in selected police force areas in England and Wales, 2009-11(2,3) 
			  2009 2010 2011 
			 Police force area Found guilty Sentenced Found guilty Sentenced Found guilty Sentenced 
			 Suffolk 0 0 0 0 0 0 
			 Bedfordshire 3 3 0 0 0 0 
			 Cambridgeshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 
			 Essex 0 0 0 0 0 0 
			 Hertfordshire 0 0 0 0 0 0 
			 Norfolk 0 0 1 1 0 0 
			 (1) Offences under Section 141A (1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, covering breaches of the law involving sale of knives or bladed article to under-18s. (2) The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (3) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice.

Lincoln Prison

Karl McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  what the average number of staff was at HM Prison Lincoln in each of the last five years;
	(2)  what the average number of prisoners was at HM Prison Lincoln in each of the last five years.

Jeremy Wright: The information requested is set out in the following two tables.
	
		
			 Table 1: Average full-time equivalent staff at HMP Lincoln 
			  Average full-time equivalent staff 
			 2007-08 378 
			 2008-09 387 
			 2009-10 379 
			 2010-11 337 
			 2011-12 318 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 2: Average number of prisoners at HMP Lincoln 
			  Annual average population 
			 2007-08 672 
			 2008-09 693 
			 2009-10 670 
			 2010-11 605 
			 2011-12 655 
			 Notes: 1. The annual average population is calculated using end of month population figures. 2. Staffing information has been presented on a full-time-equivalent basis and represents the mean staff in post on the last day of each month. 3. The figures used in the reply have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Mediation

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will consider the introduction of a mandatory mediation for both parents to undertake in child contact disputes which do not involve an allegation of domestic violence involving a police investigation, prior to any such case being presented before the Family Courts; and if he will make a statement.

Helen Grant: The Government believe that mediation can play a valuable role in helping parents to maintain an ongoing parenting relationship during and following separation or divorce and is actively encouraging people to seek information as early as possible when considering their arrangements. The process of mediation can also equip parents with the skills needed to communicate and negotiate changes to arrangements for their child in the future.
	The coalition Government have no plans, however, to make mediation compulsory in family disputes. Mediation is a voluntary process and as such it would be quite wrong, and would be likely to be counterproductive, for the Government to seek to compel people to mediate against their will. Whether family mediation is appropriate for resolving a particular family dispute depends on a number of factors. Mediation will usually be inappropriate where domestic violence or abuse is an issue but any significant power imbalance between the parties would also make mediation unsuitable.
	Under a pre application protocol introduced in April 2011 a prospective applicant in specified types of family proceedings is expected, except in certain specified circumstances, to consider with a mediator whether the dispute could be resolved through mediation. This involves attending a mediation information and assessment meeting (a ‘MIAM’) to receive information about family mediation and how it might help the parties settle their dispute. The MIAM takes place before any proceedings are started in court.
	The court will expect all applicants to have complied with the protocol before commencing proceedings (except where any exemption applies) and will also expect a respondent to have attended a mediation information and assessment meeting, if invited to do so. If court proceedings are taken, the court will wish to know at the first hearing whether mediation has been considered by both parties.
	We believe that the operation of the protocol needs to be further improved so that consideration of mediation becomes routine and not the exception. The Government's response to the Family Justice review made it clear that consideration would be given to a statutory change to make attendance at a MIAM by a potential applicant a prerequisite for starting relevant family proceedings (with limited specified exemptions, for example where there is evidence of domestic violence).
	The Government published a draft clause in September to this effect which has been subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by the Justice Select Committee. The Government await publication of the Committee's report and will consider carefully any recommendations made.

Repossession Orders: Suffolk

Therese Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many court orders have been issued for the repossession of homes in Suffolk Coastal constituency in each of the last five years.

Helen Grant: The following table shows the numbers of claims leading to orders being made for the repossession of property by mortgage lenders and landlords in Suffolk Coastal constituency between 2007 and 2011. The Ministry of Justice does not hold information at the local level on the total numbers of repossessions of property (including where keys are handed back voluntarily).
	These figures represent the numbers of claims leading to orders being made. This is more accurate than the number of orders, removing the double-counting of instances where a single claim leads to more than one order. It is also a more meaningful measure of the number of homeowners who are subject to court repossession actions.
	These figures do not indicate how many properties have actually been repossessed. Repossessions can occur without a court order, such as where borrowers hand the keys back to the lender. Also, not all possession orders result in repossession. Many orders are suspended and if the borrower complies with the repayment arrangements set out in the suspended order the property will not be repossessed.
	The most recent data for claims leading to orders for all regions and local authority areas in England and Wales were recently published on 8 November 2012. This statistical bulletin is available from the Ministry of Justice website at:
	http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/statistics-and-data/civil-justice/mortgage-possession.htm
	In addition statistics on mortgage and landlord possession claims leading to orders made in the county courts of England and Wales, 2000 to 2011—Breakdown by Parliamentary Constituencies—are available in the House of Commons Library.
	
		
			 Number of mortgage(1) and landlord(2,3) possession claims leading to orders made(4,5,6) for properties in Suffolk Coastal constituency(7,8,9)—2007-11 
			  Mortgage possession claims leading to an order made Landlord possession claims leading to an order made 
			 2007 55 70 
			 2008 80 55 
			 2009 65 45 
			 2010 55 60 
			 2011 50 90 
			 (1) Includes all types of mortgage lenders. (2) Includes all types of landlord whether social or private. (3) Landlord actions include those made under both standard and accelerated procedures. Landlord actions via the accelerated procedure enable the orders to be made solely on the basis of written evidence for shorthold tenancies, when the fixed period of tenancy has come to an end. (4) The number of claims that lead to an order includes all claims in which the first order, whether outright or suspended, is made during the period. (5) The court, following a judicial decision, may grant an order for possession immediately. This entitles the claimant to apply for a warrant to have the defendant evicted. However, even where a warrant for possession is issued, the parties can still negotiate a compromise to prevent eviction. (6) Includes outright and suspended orders, the latter being where the court grants the claimant possession but suspends the operation of the order. Provided the defendant complies with the terms of suspension, which usually require the defendant to pay the current mortgage or rent instalments plus some of the accrued arrears, the possession order cannot be enforced. (7) Due to constituency boundary changes after 6 May 2010 UK parliamentary general election, the figures prior to 2010 Q1 (January to March) are based on the old boundaries. (8) All figures are rounded to the nearest five. (9) All 2011 figures for Suffolk Coastal are provisional Source: Ministry of Justice

Sentencing

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how many community sentence orders have been handed down by (a) magistrates and (b) Crown courts in each of the last four years; and how many custodial sentences have been handed down in each of the last four years;
	(2)  how many (a) community sentences and (b) fines were imposed for offences of (i) vandalism, (ii) littering and (iii) anti-social behaviour in Suffolk in each of the last four years.

Jeremy Wright: The number of offenders sentenced to a community sentence or immediate custodial sentence, by court type, in England and Wales, in the years 2008 to 2011, can be viewed in Table 1.
	The number of offenders sentenced to a community sentence or fine for offences relating to vandalism, antisocial behaviour and littering, in the Suffolk police force area, in the years 2008 to 2011, can be viewed in Table 2.
	There is no specific criminal offence of ‘antisocial behaviour’, which can be interpreted as a wide range of criminal offences under various Acts. For the purposes of this answer, offences under Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986, as amended by Crime and Disorder Act 1998, have been provided, which relate to summary offences of causing harassment, alarm or distress.
	
		
			 Table 1: Offenders sentenced to a community sentence or immediate custodial sentence, by court type, in England and Wales, 2008-11(1,2) 
			 Sentenced to: Court type 2008(3) 2009 2010 2011 
			 Community sentence Magistrates courts 174,832 179,729 170,083 156,344 
			  Crown Court 15,339 16,174 19,238 17,090 
			       
			 Immediate custody Magistrates courts 50,348 48,429 48,904 46,035 
			  Crown Court 49,177 51,802 52,609 56,663 
			 (1) The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. (3) Excludes data for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July, and August 2008. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 2: Offenders sentenced to a community sentence or fine for offences relating to vandalism, antisocial behaviour and littering, Suffolk police force area, 2008-11(1,2) 
			   Sentenced to: 
			 Offence description Year Community sentence Fine 
			 Indictable criminal damage offences 2008 65 22 
			  2009 50 27 
			  2010 33 14 
			  2011 29 12 
			     
			 Summary criminal damage offences 2008 151 70 
			  2009 174 69 
			  2010 100 59 
			  2011 103 46 
			     
			 Harassment, alarm or distress(3) 2008 47 294 
			  2009 33 275 
			  2010 23 249 
			  2011 15 152 
			     
			 Depositing litter(4) 2008 0 3 
			  2009 0 10 
			  2010 0 5 
			  2011 0 14 
			 (1) The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. (3) Offences under S.5 Public Order Act 1986, as amended by Crime and Disorder Act 1998. (4) Offences under S.87 Environmental Protection Act 1990. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice

Victims Commissioner

Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether he proposes that the responsibilities of the new Victims Commissioner will be identical to those of his predecessor; and whether the new commissioner will have the same degree of independence as his predecessor.

Helen Grant: The role and responsibilities of the Victims and Witnesses Commissioner are set out in the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, as amended by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 in February 2010.
	We have not made any changes to the statutory role and responsibilities of the commissioner.

Work Capability Assessment: Appeals

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost to his Department has been of appeals to the work capability assessment in 2012-13 to date.

Helen Grant: Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) hears appeals against Department for Work and Pensions decisions on entitlement to employment and support allowance (ESA) (decisions in which the work capability assessment is a key factor) rather than appeals against work capability assessment decisions themselves.
	The estimated total cost of the 47,282 ESA appeals in which the work capability assessment was a factor disposed of during the period April to June 2012 (the latest period for which data have been published) is £10.78 million.
	These estimated costs were calculated by multiplying the average cost of an individual first-tier tribunal—social security and child support case in 2011-12 (the latest period for which these data are available) by the number of ESA appeals disposed of, in which the work capability assessment was a factor.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Olympic Games 2012

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will persuade HM Treasury to use unspent contingency funding for the London 2012 Olympic Games to refund the Big Lottery Fund for its contribution to the Games.

Sajid Javid: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Treasury.
	National lottery distributors, including the Big Lottery, benefit from funds remaining in the Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund which are not required for the Olympic and Paralympic programme. They will also be reimbursed for their additional contribution of £675 million to the Public Sector Funding Package (PSFP) from the receipts of sale of land on the Olympic Park, and will receive £71 million from the receipts of sale of the Olympic Village.
	The forecast underspend of £377 million in the PSFP for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is held by HM Treasury as part of the Government's contribution to the PSFP. Any financial benefit from the Olympics coming in under budget will be used to pay off debt or help the economy.

TREASURY

Banks

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent steps he has taken to reform banking and to redirect banking fines to the public purse.

Greg Clark: The draft Banking Reform Bill outlining fundamental reforms to the banking sector was published last month and is undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny.
	We have tabled amendments to the Financial Services Bill which provide for fine revenues net of enforcement costs to go to the public purse in future. The Bill is being debated today in the House of Lords. Some £35 million of those fines received so far this year will be used to support armed forces charities.

Child Care Tax Credits

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  how many families in (a) Scotland and (b) the UK claimed child care tax credits for children aged five and over in the latest period for which figures are available; and what the average sum claimed was;
	(2)  how many families in (a) Scotland and (b) the UK claimed both disability and child care tax credits for children aged five and over in the latest period for which figures are available; and what the average sum claimed was.

Sajid Javid: Information on the number of families claiming disability and child care tax credits for children aged five and over is available only at disproportionate cost. Information on the average sum claimed for child care tax credits in respect of children aged five and over is not available.

Development Aid

Helen Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of whether the UK will meet the Government's target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income being spent on overseas development by 2013.

Sajid Javid: The Government made a commitment at the 2010 spending review to spend 0.56% of gross national income on Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2011 and 2012 (calendar years) and 0.7% of gross national income in 2013 calendar year and thereafter.
	At the 2010 spending review the Treasury provided the Department for International Development (DFID) and a small number of other Government Departments with a spending budget for fiscal years 2011-12 to 2014-15 to meet the 0.7% of gross national income target.
	The UK delivered its 0.56% of gross national income target in 2011 and, as announced at the 2012 autumn statement the UK remains on track to be the first G8 country to spend 0.7% of gross national income on ODA in 2013.

Members: Correspondence

Madeleine Moon: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will investigate the reasons for the delay by the Criminal Investigation Complaints, Freedom of Information and Data Protection Act Team at HM Revenue and Customs in providing a full response to the letters from the hon. Member for Bridgend dated 24 November 2011, HMRC reference 000001/09/2010, and 12 October 2012, reference MM/JH/03/10/2012; if he will now provide a full response to those letters; and if he will make a statement.

David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) apologises for the long delay in dealing with this matter. The complainant asked for the return of documents uplifted as part of a complex criminal investigation and HMRC had to examine a large number of boxes of material to establish whether it held the documents requested and to then decide if they could properly be returned to the complainant without compromising the ongoing investigation. This examination is now complete and a formal reply will be sent to the hon. Member as soon as the draft is approved and within 14 days.

Revenue and Customs: Correspondence

Julian Huppert: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC) target time is for opening postal mail received by HMRC; what proportion of such post has been opened within that target time in the last six months; and how much unopened post there is.

David Gauke: HMRC has a target of opening 96% of post received in 24 hours. In the last six months HMRC regional post rooms opened 95% of post received within 24 hours, the remainder in the next working day. Currently there is no unopened post over 24 hours old.

Taxation: Self-assessment

Julian Huppert: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many personal tax returns for 2010-11 submitted to HM Revenue and Customs have not yet been processed.

David Gauke: HMRC receives on average 5,000 self-assessment tax returns every week for all years before 2011-12 but does not hold the information by specific year.
	As at 30 November 2012, the total number unprocessed for 2010-11 and earlier tax years was 11,974.

Temporary Employment: Tax Avoidance

David Ward: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  if he will take further steps to ensure that temporary and agency workers are not exploited by temporary labour providers operating travel and subsistence schemes;
	(2)  what steps he is taking to ensure the enforcement of laws that prevent temporary labour providers operating travel and subsistence schemes and pay day by pay day tax avoidance models; and if he will take steps to ensure that firms operating such schemes face robust action;
	(3)  if he will provide an update on the estimate of HM Revenue and Customs in 2008 that unlawful travel and subsistence tax avoidance schemes would cost the Exchequer £650 million a year in lost tax revenue by 2013.

David Gauke: I refer the hon. Member to the answers given to the House on 19 November 2012, Official Report, column 273W, and 30 October 2012, Official Report, column 210W.
	The estimate made in the 2008 consultation was of the cost to the Exchequer of travel and subsistence schemes used in temporary labour. Many of these schemes operate within the rules and this estimate does not take into account the changes to the National Minimum Wage regulations in 2011 or HMRC's increased compliance in this area to prevent loss through unlawful schemes.

Tobacco: Smuggling

Stephen Williams: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what his Department spent on salaries for full-time equivalent staff allocated to tackling tobacco smuggling (a) in total, (b) engaged in detection, (c) engaged in investigations and (d) working on intelligence matters in 2011-12;
	(2)  what HM Revenue and Customs spent on the Tackling Tobacco Smuggling strategy in 2010-11; how many of his Department's staff worked on implementing the strategy in 2010-11; and how many of those were engaged in (a) detection, (b) intelligence-gathering and analysis, (c) investigations and (d) the provision of legal advice;
	(3)  what HM Revenue and Customs spent on publicity campaigns to prevent tobacco smuggling in 2010-11.

Sajid Javid: It is not possible to provide a detailed breakdown of the total HM Revenue and Customs spent on salaries for full time equivalent staff allocated to tackling tobacco smuggling in the way requested. To the extent that HM Revenue and Customs is able to break down expenditure on tobacco related activity, this is detailed as follows.
	
		
			 2011-12 
			 HM Revenue and Customs activity Salary cost (£) 
			 Investigation (includes detection, criminal investigation, and specialist civil investigation) 25,636,005 
			 Risk and Intelligence 8,143,109 
			 Other 3,102,567 
			 Total 36,881,681 
		
	
	I refer the hon. Member to the replies given to him on 20 March 2012, Official Report, column 620W, regarding the number of HM Revenue and Customs staff that worked on the Tackling Tobacco Smuggling strategy, and money spent on publicity campaigns to prevent tobacco smuggling in 2010-11.

Welfare Tax Credits: Suffolk

Therese Coffey: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in Suffolk Coastal constituency were in receipt of (a) child tax credit and (b) working tax credit in each of the last five years; and what the cost was of providing each such tax credit in Suffolk Coastal constituency in each such year.

Sajid Javid: The information for the 2011-12 tax year has not yet been published (it is due to be released in May 2013). However, information for the 2006-07 to 2010-11 tax years is available.
	This information is published in the HMRC publication ‘Child and Working Tax Credits Statistics Finalised annual awards. Geographical analysis’.
	Information for the 2010-11 tax year can be found at:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/fin-geog-stats/geo-analyses.xls
	Information for previous tax years can be found at:
	http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/final-award-geog.htm
	In these publications, the number of families in receipt of child tax credit (CTC) and working tax credit (WTC) in Suffolk Coastal constituency can be found in Table 3.
	For convenience, these figures have been reproduced in the following table:
	
		
			 Table 3: Average number of benefiting families in Suffolk Coastal parliamentary constituency, last available five years 
			   In-work families (thousand)  
			   With children With no children  
			  Total out-of work families (thousand)  Receiving CTC only   
			  Receiving CTC only Receiving WTC and CTC More than the family element Family element or less Receiving WTC only Total families (thousand) 
			 2010-11 1.3 2.4 1.2 2.6 0.6 8.1 
			 2009-10 1.4 2.3 1.2 2.7 0.6 8.2 
			 2008-09 1.3 2.2 1.1 3.0 0.5 8.1 
			 2007-08 1.3 2.0 1.1 3.2 0.4 8.0 
			 2006-07 1.3 2.0 1.1 3.3 0.4 8.1 
		
	
	The information on the administrative costs of providing tax credits in Suffolk Coastal constituency is not available.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Advantage West Midlands

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether land previously owned by Advantage West Midlands at Birmingham Eastside was (a) transferred to the Homes and Communities Agency or (b) sold.

Mark Prisk: All land previously owned by Advantage West Midlands at Birmingham Eastside was transferred to the Homes and Communities Agency with the exception of units 1 and 2, Queensway Trading Estate, which were sold to Birmingham city council in September 2011.

Anti-Semitism

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the trends in the reporting of incidents of anti-Semitism in November 2012.

Don Foster: Individual police forces collate and analyse intelligence on the number of anti-Semitic attacks, in order to inform local operational decisions and to provide adequate protection at times of demand. In addition, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) analyses this intelligence to inform forces of any emerging challenges.
	ACPO's National Community Tension Team (NCTT) did see an increase in protest activity linked to events in Israel/Gaza in November 2012. Historical precedents point towards the potential for such an increase as NCTT saw with the Israel-Gaza conflict in 2008-09. Updates from police members of the NCTT anti-Semitic Hate Crime Working Group indicate that no significant tensions or changes in levels of hate incidents have been noted through standard Tension Monitoring processes. However, the Community Security Trust (CST) who monitor anti-Semitic incidents have highlighted a number of hate crime incidents that they believe have occurred due to current events in Israel/Gaza. CST has indicated that anti-Semitism had potentially doubled in the London area in one week compared to the previous week. Most reports were of verbal anti-Semitic abuse, graffiti and inflammatory postings on Facebook and Twitter. In light of this NCTT has reminded all police forces of the potential for an increase in anti-Semitic incidents and they have been asked to take proactive measures where appropriate and to report any critical changes to NCTT as a matter of urgency.

Bellwin Scheme

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much funding has been (a) claimed by and (b) paid out to local authorities under the Bellwin scheme as a result of flooding in each financial year since 2007-08.

Brandon Lewis: The level of funding over time is causally linked to the scale of flooding: the floods of 2007 were particularly widespread, with over 55,000 properties affected.
	Prior to the flooding of earlier this year, the last severe flooding was in 2009 and concentrated in Cumbria; this is why there was no spending in 2011-12.
	The Bellwin Scheme operates by local authorities retrospectively claiming spending back. As I informed the hon. Member in my answer to her of 19 October 2012, Official Report, column 450-451W, we only received claims for 2012 in October.
	The following table sets out amounts claimed by local authorities and paid by DCLG under the Bellwin scheme for flood related incidents in financial years 2007-08 to date. Payments for the June and July 2012 scheme will be made in the week commencing 10 December 2012.
	
		
			 Bellwin flood related payments 2007-08 to 2012-13 
			 £ 
			  Bellwin claimed Outside scope of scheme Bellwin grant paid 
			 2007-08 22,787,812 5,279,000 17,508,812 
			 2008-09 1,956,316 20,635 1,935,681 
			 2009-10 1,344,666 0 1,344,666 
			 2010-11 1,133,696 244,155 889,541 
			 2011-12 0 0 0 
			 2012-13 (to date) 697,106 — — 
			 Total 27,919,596 5,543,790 21,678,700 
			 Note: Payments may not necessarily be in the same financial year as the incidents occurred. The amount claimed is net of threshold and grant rate.

Pay

Dominic Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many employees in his Department were paid (a) between £80,000 and £100,000 per year and (b) in excess of £100,000 per year in each of the last five years.

Brandon Lewis: The number of employees in the Department for Communities and Local Government being paid between £80,000 and £100,000 per year, and in excess of £100,000 per year as at 31 March of each of the last five years is as follows:
	
		
			 Number 
			 As at 31 March £80,000 to £100,000 £100,000 + 
			 2008 23 24 
			 2009 25 24 
			 2010 18 19 
			 2011 17 16 
			 2012 14 15 
		
	
	As at 30 November 2012, the latest date for which information is available, the Department had 14 staff earning between £80,000 and £100,000, and 12 staff earning over £100,000.

Regeneration: Morecambe

David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when (a) he and (b) the Housing and Communities Agency (HCA) were made aware of the wish of Lancaster City Council to drop the requirement to match fund the £1.9 million allocated by the HCA for the regeneration of Morecambe; what his policy is on this matter; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Prisk: I know my hon. Friend has been campaigning on this matter, as is evident from the petition and his speech of 3 December 2012, Official Report, column 696, on the Regeneration of Chatsworth Gardens.
	As the documents deposited in the answer to him of 25 October 2012, Official Report, column 994W, indicate, Lancaster City Council bid for the Clusters of Empty Homes Programme with a commitment to provide matched funding.
	Lancaster City Council have been allocated £1.9 million of central funding from the Programme. I understand that they have now confirmed that they will be providing their match funding, as required by the Programme.

Regional Development Agencies: Assets

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 
	(1)  what assets previously held by (a) Advantage West Midlands, (b) the East of England Development Agency, (c) the East Midlands Development Agency, (d) the Northwest Development Agency, (e) One North East, (f) the South East England Development Agency, (g) the South West Regional Development Agency and (h) Yorkshire Forward have been sold by the Homes and Communities Agency since it acquired the assets of former regional development agencies;
	(2)  how much has been received from the sale by the Homes and Communities Agency of former regional development agency assets.

Mark Prisk: holding answer 29 November 2012
	The lists of land and property assets transferred by each Regional Development Agency to the Homes and Communities Agency on 19 September 2011 are available on the Homes and Communities Agency website at the following link:
	http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/ourwork/economic-assets
	These assets were bought by the national tax-payer and therefore it is right that ultimately the receipts are used nationally. This programme uses the Local Stewardship Model which recycles money to improve sites to create local benefits.
	A list of the assets disposed or part disposed of by the Homes and Communities Agency since August/September 2011, and details of the associated receipts, have been placed in the Library of the House.

Regional Development Agencies: Assets

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much from the sale of former regional development agency assets by the Homes and Communities Agency will be spent within the region in which the asset originated.

Mark Prisk: holding answer 29 November 2012
	Receipts of £34.9 million have been achieved to date from the disposal by the Homes and Communities Agency of land and property assets of the former regional development agencies.
	Of these, £7.6 million relates to the disposal of coalfield land and property assets. Although the former regional development agencies held the coalfield assets, English Partnerships/the Homes and Communities Agency paid for their remediation, and it was agreed under the last Administration that any receipts would go back to the Homes and Communities Agency accordingly.
	The remaining receipts will be spent on meeting the legal commitments that we have inherited from the former regional development agencies. In total, the current estimate of commitments is equivalent to £310.3 million (for example, in the hon. Member's own locality, the cost of the former North West Regional Development Agency's commitments is currently an estimated £64.4 million).
	These commitments are a consequence of the land-banking and asset management of the former agencies (rather than the abolition of the agencies, as such), and relate to steps that are necessary to help the regeneration of these sites.
	As illustrations, such commitments include:
	Tipner site, Portsmouth: honouring the land remediation contract to remove pollutants from the soil so that new development can start on the site.
	Gosport: Demolition of dangerous buildings and site infrastructure (water, sewerage, electric supply).
	Bradford: Stripping out asbestos, and further structural support, to make the Odeon site fire safe.
	Northfleet, Kent: paying a contractor to raise the level of the land to comply with Environment Agency flood requirements.
	Wolverhampton: Removing pollutants and old structures on a former copper works site.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Common Agricultural Policy

Peter Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent progress he has made on reforming the common agricultural policy.

David Heath: We want an efficient and responsive agricultural sector in the EU and globally and this round of CAP reform must help achieve this. We need regulations that are implementable, administratively simple and continue the path of reform.
	Last week the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs attended the Agriculture Council, where we continued to hold negotiations on the proposed CAP reform regulations. Progress on some technical details has been made and we hope for agreement amongst member states under the Irish presidency.

Live Animal Exports

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what his policy is on live animal exports from the UK; and if he will make a statement.

David Heath: The Government's position is that we would prefer animals to be slaughtered as close as practicable to their point of production; a trade in meat and meat products is preferable to the long distance transport of animals.
	However, the live export trade is a lawful trade when welfare in transit is complied with. We cannot ban it. This has been proved in the High Court and in the European Court of Justice.

Sky Lanterns

Mark Spencer: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans he has to investigate the effect of sky lanterns on livestock and crops.

David Heath: The Government are aware of concerns about the impacts of sky lanterns on animals, crops and property and have taken steps to raise public awareness and encourage people to think carefully before using them. The Government have now commissioned an independent study to assess the risks that sky lanterns pose and to see if any further action is needed to address the concerns that people have about them.

Rural-proofing Government Policy

Dan Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent discussions he has had with his ministerial colleagues on rural-proofing Government policy.

Richard Benyon: The Government's Rural Statement published in September reaffirmed Ministers' commitment to the policy and practice of rural proofing. We are developing new guidelines on rural proofing to support all Government Departments to examine the evidence of rural need. Departments must consider the impacts of their policies on rural communities and businesses and, where appropriate, adjust policies accordingly. The new guidelines will be considered by Ministers in all Government Departments before being published.

Water Bills: South-west

Anne-Marie Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps his Department is taking to lower water bills in the south-west.

Richard Benyon: The Government have decided to fund South West Water to enable it to cut bills by £50 per year for all household customers. We will start making this payment from April 2013 and have committed to continuing it through to the end of the next spending review period. We have also issued guidance for water companies to enable them to introduce social tariffs to reduce the bills of customers who would otherwise struggle to pay.

Food Production: Slave and Trafficked Labour

Michael Connarty: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps he is taking to remove slave and trafficked labour from the supply chains of food-producing companies.

David Heath: The Gangmasters Licensing Authority plays a key role in protecting workers who may be exploited in the agriculture, shellfish, and food processing and packaging industries.
	The Government intend to focus the authority’s remit on suspected serious and organised crime, working more closely with the Serious Organised Crime Agency and other specialist law enforcement agencies.

Agriculture: Exports

Andrew Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what progress his Department has made in promoting British exports from the agricultural sector.

David Heath: DEFRA continues to work with industry to promote exports. We have made significant progress towards the shared goals in our action plan ‘Driving Export Growth in the Farming, Food and Drink Sector’, published in January. Thanks to the Prime Minister's intervention, Russia lifted its ban on beef and lamb and poultry meat—potentially worth up to £35 million this year. We have also opened China to pork meat, estimated to be worth £50 million a year.

Livestock: Transport

Stuart Andrew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps his Department is taking to prevent further animal deaths as the result of the live animal export trade.

David Heath: The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) is responsible for implementing EU rules on the protection of animals during transport (Council Regulation (EC) 1/2005). It has taken a number of recent measures, including an increase in the inspection of animals and vehicles at the point of loading.
	The checks at the point of loading, undertaken by AHVLA inspectors, include consignment details, transporter/driver details, journey details and a separate checklist of 33 questions on the suitability of the vehicle and the welfare of the animals being transported. Any non-compliance is recorded and the necessary action taken by AHVLA inspectors.

Members: Correspondence

David Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he intends to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Walsall North of 3 October 2012 concerning a constituent.

David Heath: Lord de Mauley replied to the hon. Member's letter on 26 November 2012.

DEFENCE

Armed Forces: Cadets

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the Cadet Force establishment is in (a) West Sussex and (b) East Sussex in (i) schools and (ii) detachments.

Mark Francois: The Sea Cadet, Army Cadet and Air Cadet units in East and West Sussex do not have an establishment, however the figures for the number of cadets for the county of Sussex is shown in the following table:
	
		
			 Cadet Force Strength 
			 Army Cadet Force 1,287 
			 Air Training Corps 762 
		
	
	Figures for the Sea Cadets are only available for the whole of southern area, covering Dorset to Kent, as far north as London, for which the strength is 2,710 cadets.
	Combined Cadet Forces (CCFs) do have establishments. There are seven CCFs in West Sussex schools which are shown in the following table:
	
		
			 Serial School Establishment 
			 1 Ardingly College 125 
			 2 Chichester High School for Boys 122 
			 3 Christ's Hospital 255 
			 4 Hurstpierpoint College 236 
			 5 Lancing College 195 
			 6 Seaford College 200 
			 7 Shoreham College 125 
		
	
	There are four CCFs in East Sussex schools which are shown in the following table:
	
		
			 Serial School Establishment 
			 1 Brighton College 310 
			 2 Eastbourne College 335 
			 3 Longhill School 75 
		
	
	
		
			 4 William Parker Sports College 120

Armed Forces: Crime

Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what alleged offences against a senior rank made by a junior rank can be reported outside the chain of command; to whom the allegation can be reported; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Francois: It is very important that all service people feel free to exercise their right to make an allegation without fear of victimisation or other inappropriate behaviour. Provision has therefore been made in legislation to protect this right. As such, any allegations, both of criminal and non-criminal misconduct, can be reported to the service police without requiring any referral by the chain of command, and individuals are also protected by their right to report any allegations of criminal misconduct to the civilian police. In addition, service personnel of all ranks can also make service complaints. These will be dealt with outside of the immediate chain of command where the alleged misconduct pertains to that chain.

Armed Forces: Sexual Offences

Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps his Department has taken to implement the recommendations of its 2006 report on Quantitative and Qualitative Research into Sexual Harassment in the Armed Forces; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Francois: The information will take time to collate. I will write to the hon. Member as soon as it is available.

Danny Nightingale

Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether there will be any impediment to Sergeant Danny Nightingale resuming his military career on release from detention.

Mark Francois: holding answer 30 November 2012
	The decision of the appeal court to reduce Sergeant Nightingale's sentence to a 12 month detention, suspended, means that he has now been released from detention albeit subject to the terms of that suspension. The Court also granted leave to appeal the conviction and therefore it would be inappropriate for me to comment until that appeal has concluded or been abandoned.

Defence Procurement

Stephen Barclay: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence with reference to the answer of 21 May 2012, Official Report, column 438W, on defence procurement, how many of the urgent operational requirements delivered, or planned for delivery, later than originally approved are projected to be more than (a) six months, (b) 12 months, (c) 18 months and (d) 24 months later than the original date.

Gerald Howarth: holding answer 16 July 2012
	The information requested is currently being verified. I will write to my hon. Friend when this has been completed.
	Substantive answer from Philip Dunne to Stephen Barclay:
	In response to your parliamentary question of 3rd September 2012, (Official Report, column 45W) seeking further information about the length of delay to the UORs referred to in his answer of 21st May 2012, my predecessor undertook to write to you with the information you requested. As some time has now passed I wanted to explain the reason for the delay.
	The Urgent Operational Requirements (UOR) process was intended to allow the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to purchase rapidly or modify equipment to address urgent and unforeseen capability gaps in support of a current or imminent military operation. The process has been an undoubted success, with over £5.5 billion spent on equipment to meet emerging requirements in Afghanistan since the operation began. The process has evolved over several years and continues to change in relation to, among other things, the types of UOR being procured, the way Defence is organised and the databases on which the information is held. As a result of this evolution in the way the MOD manages the process, there is currently no single repository of information on UORs to draw from, although work is in hand to address this.
	When the Ministry of Defence answered your original question of 21st May 2012, (Official Report, column 439W) officials did so to the best of their ability. In preparing the answer to your latest question about how late some UORs were compared to their original approvals, discrepancies between the current bespoke UOR database and other records were discovered. I would like to resolve these before formally responding to your question and have asked for this work to be completed as soon as possible.
	I am sorry for this delay and will provide an answer to you as soon as the checks are completed and the information verified.

Devonport Dockyard

Oliver Colvile: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what investment in infrastructure and machinery was made by his Department in HMNB Devonport dockyard in each year from 2008 to 2010.

Philip Dunne: holding answer 22 November 2012
	The Ministry of Defence does not hold centrally details of how much has been invested in Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport in each year from 2008 to 2010. The information will need to be collected from the relevant teams and will take some time to collate. I will write to the hon. Member when the figures are available.
	Substantive answer from Philip Dunne to Oliver Colvile:
	On 26th November 2012, (Official Report, column 23W) I undertook to provide a substantive reply to your Parliamentary Question with regard to information about the amount of investment in infrastructure and machinery made by the Ministry of Defence at Her Majesty's Naval Base (HMNB) Devonport in each year from 2008 to 2010.
	The information you requested is shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Table of investment in HMNB Devonport 
			 £ million 
			 Investments April 2008 to March 2009 April 2009 to March 2010 April 2010 Total 
			 Project Armada(1) 19 20 2 41 
			 New Works and Floating Assets 1 2 0 3 
			 Functional Machinery 1 1 0 2 
			 Long Term Fleet Time Docking Project 9 3 0 12 
			 Nuclear Facilities Estate Investment 33 44 3 80 
			 Defence Storage and Distribution Agency Plymouth 1 0 0 1 
			 Total(2) 63 70 5 138 
			 (1) The Armada project is a private finance initiative project that provides single living accommodation for 1,650 Royal Navy personnel. (2) The sum of the figures for the individual investments in the period from April 2008 to March 2009, when rounded to the nearest £ million, produce a variance of £1 million.

Devonport Dockyard

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent work has taken place under the Nuclear Facilities Estate Investment at HM Naval Base Devonport.

Philip Dunne: The investment in the Nuclear Facilities Estate at Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport involves modernising the long-term docking and decommissioning and lay up facilities for Trafalgar Class submarines. This includes replacement of the reactor access house for removing fuel from the submarines, along with a number of safety improvements.

HMS Clyde

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of leasing HMS Clyde in each year to 2018.

Philip Dunne: The annual cost of leasing HMS Clyde until 2018 is £3.5 million. This figure excludes contractor logistic support costs.

Meetings

Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what meetings (a) the right hon. Member for North East Hampshire and (b) the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex have had with (i) Ministers, (ii) civil servants and (iii) senior military personnel in his Department since May 2010; and what was discussed at each such meeting.

Philip Hammond: The following table details the meetings which have taken place between Ministry of Defence Ministers and my right hon. Friend the Member for North East Hampshire (Mr Arbuthnot) and my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex (Mr Jenkin) since May 2010.
	
		
			 Date of meeting Name of Minister Name of MP Purpose of discussion 
			 22 June 2010 Right hon. Dr Liam Fox (SofS) Right hon. James Arbuthnot MP Introductory call 
			 24 November 2010 Right hon. Andrew Robathan (Min DPWV) Bernard Jenkin MP Blueforces Ltd 
			 13 June 2011 Right hon. Dr Liam Fox (SofS) Right hon. James Arbuthnot MP House of Commons Defence Committee (HCDC), Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) and National Security Strategy (NSS) issues 
			 14 November 2011 Right hon. Philip Hammond (SofS) Right hon. James Arbuthnot HCDC, SDSR and NSS issues 
			 12 October 2011 Peter Luff (Min DEST) Right hon. James Arbuthnot MP Nimrod MRA4 
			 29 November 2011 Right hon. Philip Hammond (SofS) Bernard Jenkin MP Defence issues 
			 31 January 2012 Peter Luff (Min DEST) Right hon. James Arbuthnot MP White Paper National Security Through Technology Cm8278 
			 1 February 2012 Right hon. Philip Hammond (SofS) Right hon. James Arbuthnot MP HCDC issues 
			 24 April 2012 Peter Luff (Min DEST) Right hon. James Arbuthnot MP Helicopter capability 
			 9 May 2012 Right hon. Philip Hammond (SofS) Right hon. James Arbuthnot MP HCDC issues 
			 25 June 2012 Nick Harvey (Min (AF)) Right hon. James Arbuthnot MP Defence issues 
			 16 October 2012 Right hon. Philip Hammond (SofS) James Arbuthnot MP HCDC issues 
			 17 October 2012 Philip Dunne (Min DEST) James Arbuthnot MP Introductory meeting with Chairman and HCDC members 
		
	
	I also attended and spoke at the Electronic Infrastructure Summit chaired by James Arbuthnot on 14 May 2012, and spoke to him in the margins of the event. Records of this and other such meetings in the margins of events and the business of the House are not retained.
	Information on any meetings between the two MPs and military and civilian members of staff is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Military Aid

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence to which foreign staff colleges the UK attaches instructors.

Mark Francois: holding answer 22 November 2012
	The UK has instructors at staff colleges in Australia, France, Germany, the United States of America, Canada, Kuwait, Italy, South Africa, Brunei and Germany, in addition, instructors are routinely posted to UAE and Jamaica, although there are no current incumbents in these posts.

Ministry of Defence Police and Guarding Agency

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what consideration has been given to the flexible tasking proposals prepared by the Ministry of Defence Police in determining future security provisions at Ministry of Defence establishments; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Francois: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 31 October 2012, Official Report, columns 295-96W, to the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Katy Clark).

Nuclear Submarines

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  how many active Z-Berths are in UK waters and where such berths are located; how many times such berths have been used in each of the last five years; and how many nuclear-powered submarines such berths can accommodate at any one time;
	(2)  how many X-Berths there are at UK Royal Navy bases; where such berths are located; and how many nuclear-powered submarines such berths can accommodate.

Philip Dunne: HM Naval Base Devonport has four alongside X Berths, each capable of accommodating two nuclear powered warships (NPW), and two Z Berth mooring buoys, each of which can accommodate a single NPW.
	HM Naval Base Clyde has six alongside X Berths and one alongside Z Berth, all of which can accommodate one NPW. Clyde also has one Z Berth anchorage, which is currently in the process of being re-authorised.

Public Consultation

Gemma Doyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what consultations are being conducted by his Department.

Mark Francois: holding answer 30 November 2012
	Public consultations are recorded on the Ministry of Defence's (MOD) website and can be found at:
	http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/CorporatePublications/ConsultationsandCommunications/PublicConsultations/
	MOD does not hold a central list of its external engagements which fall short of a full public consultation and to create such a list would incur disproportionate cost.

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what rules of engagement govern the use of UK armed drones.

Andrew Robathan: Any weapon released by the UK's Reaper Remotely Piloted Aircraft System is done so under the command of a pilot bounded by Rules of Engagement which are no different to those used for manned UK combat aircraft. Targets are always positively identified as legitimate military objectives, and strikes are prosecuted in accordance with the Law of Armed Conflict and UK Rules of Engagement. I am withholding further details as their disclosure would, or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the armed forces.

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of whether the geographic and psychological distance between the operator of an armed UK drone and its target makes attacks more likely to be launched.

Andrew Robathan: The geographical distance between the operator of an aircraft and a target, whether the pilot is in the aircraft or remote, does not affect the legal position of an attack. All UK forces operate in accordance with the Law of Armed Conflict and UK Rules of Engagement which apply no matter the location of the pilot. Additionally, pilots of all aircraft types follow the same procedures for attacks, which include an emphasis on minimising the risk of civilian casualties.
	Regarding psychological considerations, experience of operating the Reaper Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) suggests that far from being detached from the reality of the situation, Reaper aircrew are just as, if not more, connected to the situation on the ground as compared to operators of other aircraft types. The increased information available to RPAS operators and subsequently ground commanders, the endurance of Remotely Piloted Aircraft and the substantial operational experience of RPAS crews, who fly missions over Afghanistan for years at a time, result in an unrivalled depth of knowledge. Therefore, RPAS makes a significant contribution to the safety and security of UK and coalition forces in Afghanistan, while also minimising the risk to civilians.

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of whether belief in the accuracy of drone sensors and cameras may lead commanders to order strikes with a higher risk of causing civilian casualties than would previously have been the case.

Andrew Robathan: UK Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) are flown by professional military pilots and follow the Law of Armed Conflict and UK Rules of Engagement in exactly the same way as pilots of other aircraft types.
	The fidelity of RPAS sensors is similar to those of other aircraft types. Experience in Afghanistan indicates that the ability of UK Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems to loiter and build up an intelligence picture over long periods enhances the ability of commanders to positively identify legitimate military targets and minimise the risk to civilians.

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of whether the unmanned nature of armed UK drones makes it more likely that attacks will be launched.

Andrew Robathan: UK Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) are anything but unmanned—professional pilots remain in full control of the aircraft at all times and follow the Law of Armed Conflict and UK Rules of Engagement in exactly the same way as pilots of other aircraft types.
	Our experience of operating the Reaper RPAS in Afghanistan suggests that Reaper aircrew are just as, if not more, connected to the situation on the ground as compared to operators of other aircraft types. The increased information available to RPAS operators and subsequently ground commanders, the endurance of Remotely Piloted Aircraft and the substantial operational experience of RPAS crews, who fly missions over Afghanistan for years at a time, result in an unrivalled depth of knowledge. Therefore, RPAS make a significant contribution to the safety and security of UK and coalition forces in Afghanistan, while also minimising the risk to civilians.